


Monochrome Madness

by InkSpottie



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Completely Off Canon, Gen, Kinda?, a bit of chapter five spoilers, batim au, because i can't draw awesome comics like most of the artists in this fandom, because there's not enough out there, little errand boy au, so heres my own for you all to enjoy, the rest of batim cast, this originated on tumblr but i decided to write some shit, toon!Henry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 04:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15356403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSpottie/pseuds/InkSpottie
Summary: Henry doesn’t quite make it after the fight with Brute-Boris, and no one is there to save him in the end from Alice’s clutches.She decides to take her little errand boy under her wing.That’ll show that pesky Ink Demon.





	1. To Be a Perfect Angel, Some Sin Must be Done

Stumbling over yet another loose floorboard, a soft huff was heard from the darkness. He didn’t know how long he had been here, how far he dived deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of ink and decay. Henry wasn’t sure if he was angry that his dear, good pal Joey had tricked him into coming, or that his favorite outfit was now covered in sticky black ink.

He supposed it was his damn fault for trying to look nice when reuniting with an old friend. 

It was a bit of a shock to him when he opened the door to a dusty, rundown studio, dripping of ink and crumpled papers. He had heard of Joey Drew Studios being shut down in the papers, but he didnt expect it to just be…abandoned. Joey had said many, many times that he would go down with this studio. Even if the studio went down, Henry was almost positive that the man would stay in the damn studio until he died. 

Apparently this wasn’t the case, since his dear longtime friend was gone. Absent from the broken floorboards, graffitied walls and abandoned halls. Once 30 years ago, the place was filled with life, bustling with happy people that weren’t exactly being paid well, but enjoyed their time there.

There were, new additions to the studio however. The walls covered with posters of the darling dancing demon and his friends, along with very odd and foreboding phrases. Henry wanted it to be teenagers trying to be funny, but...a part of him knew it wasn’t.

Something sinister was happening here, and he planned to figure out just what it was. He finally made it to the largest room, pulling the crank to find a very, very large machine pulled from the depths of the studio. On the side of the massive device read, ‘Ink Machine’. Just what was this thing? 

The only way to find out was to turn the damn thing on. At that moment he should of left, as he placed the final offering, remembering how much Joey liked to be dramatic with his puzzles and other things. With a heave of the lever, the machine roared to life, ink starting to pour from the machine, down the walls as the sounds of pipes bursting above him.

All his training screamed for him to run, to get the hell out of here and that’s exactly what he did. 

...

Long story short, the exit was unavailable, falling deeper into the studio, which was bigger as he remembered it to be. Encountering the Ink Demon, the stretched Bendy with clawed hand and garbled words, seemed that it wanted to swipe his head off with a long sweep of his englonated limbs. Bendy was alive, though a bit, malformed as was Boris, and Alice. 

Just what did Joey do?

…

Henry was struggling, his body ached from age and exhausting, every muscle screamed for him to rest, but he couldn’t. Adrenaline was pumping non-stop, giving him a mildly infuriating headache. His pants were stained to his knees with ink, blotches of the stuff covered his gray vest, and white dress shirt now rolled up to his elbows. It would take ages to get the stains out.

Not that cleaning his clothes was his top priority. Getting the hell out of here was his main goal, that and figuring out just what happened in the past 30 years. 

Boris was missing and she had him, Alice, or he supposed not Alice. Alice was a cartoon and this...creature was as if someone mashed, what he believed was Susie, together quite sloppily. Her mannerisms and the way she spoke reminded him of the late Alice Angel voice actress. Before she had apparently been replaced by another. However, by no means, was she his Alice, his creation. 

Joey wanted a character to be the sort of opposite of Bendy, not exactly a foil, but someone who was a bit more...angelic if you will. Henry was in the making of her before he was drafted, the final sketches still in his desks along with Bendy, and Boris. They were his, not these creatures roaming around. 

Alice’s voice rang through the empty room as Henry sat down at the Haunted House sort of ride, Alice said she would give Boris back if he did her errands. He knew she was taunting him, her voice dripping with distaste as the speakers began to crackle to life. 

“Tell me Henry, why are you here? Do you enjoy the thrill of the hunt, or was there something else that keeps you going?” She asks and Henry glanced up at the ceiling, his gray brows pinching together.

It wasn’t like he could answer her, his larynx was pretty much destroyed when he was in the war. He had the scars to prove it, discharged because of the injury. He was lucky to be alive, but it meant he was never to talk again. Not unless he wanted to inflict a large amount of pain to himself.

Alice just chuckled softly, “You do know how to keep a lady intrigued. Not a single word from your lips, do you think you’re better than us?” Her voice gets more distorted like one layer placed upon another. Mixing together like crude paint. 

They didn’t understand sign, and there was no way for him to just stop what he was doing and write something down for them to read. So he wasn’t sure just what he could do. 

The tunnel was quiet after that, the only sound was the cranking of the mechanism from the ride as it turned corners with slight ease. It would of been a cute ride, if he was not in this sort of situation where everything was trying to kill him. 

With a churn the ride turns, making Henry slightly slide to the side, his body ached from the constant use, but he needed to get Boris. Boris was...well he seemed to be the only sane one here.

The silence talks and small gestures made Henry want to protect him, to get him out of here. He wasn’t sure why it was such a strong feeling, he supposed it was because Boris was alive. Not just some toon on some piece of paper or the margins of a notebook. 

Alive, living and breathing. 

At least he hoped he still was, the way Alice jeered at him and taunted him made him think otherwise. Hopefully he wasn’t too late. 

The skeleton on the door was foreboding as the ride continued onwards, creaking open and Henry clenched his fists going further into the darkness. 

Until large hands stopped the ride, the motion jerking the thing a bit as the gloved hands gripped the front of the car. Out the darkness a familiar face settled in front of him, a small intake a breath made Henry nearly reach out for the creature before him. 

Boris...oh god what did she do to you?! Henry gave a strangled noise, his throat aching as he tried to communicate to the now malformed Boris. He was much larger, ink dripping down his large frame a harness was strapped around his shoulders holding up a crude metal halo. Ribs were poking out of Boris’ torso and Henry sucked in a breath in pure agony of what he saw. 

No…

Two large ‘X’s’ replaced Boris’s eyes as the beast heaved the car around turning it off the railing before chucking it to the side, sending Henry flying off the thing. With a grunt Henry gathered himself panting harshly. 

The speakers flared to life once more as Alice’s laughter echoed the chamber. “Meet the new and improved Boris!” She shrieked as Boris stomped closer, heavy boots hitting against the floor. 

Henry scrambled to the side as Brute Boris slammed his fists into the ground with a large grunt.

Alice continued to speak, sounding very pleased with herself. “I took what I wanted and in return, I gave him so much more!” 

Henry wanted to scream, to shout, to curse at this...this bitch for picking apart poor Boris and forcing him to be this..this thing! Henry turned to look up at Boris, the older man’s hands splayed in a ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ fashion.

He didn’t...he wouldn’t hurt Boris. So many people had been hurt here, he didn’t want to be the cause of anymore damage. 

Alice’s voice rang through once more, “And this time, there is no Ink Demon, no escape…” 

Boris slams Henry into the ground a large snarl escaping his fanged mouth as Henry tries to pry away. Please no...he didn’t want this to end like this! He didn’t want to hurt Boris! Or anyone for that mattr.

“Boris! Tear him apart! Leave nothing!” Alice screeches as Henry kicks Boris’ jaw sending the Brute backwards as he cupped his face with a whine.

Henry crawls away, but Boris recovers quickly and with one swift kick Henry flies to the wall, feeling his ribs crack from the impact.

A silent scream escapes his mouth, his throat is on fire. It hurt, everything hurt. Trying to stand he gripped his side, his mind screaming to push onwards, to subdue Boris and maybe he would stop. 

Boris grabs him with a meaty glove, lifting him off the floor, his hand squeezing Henry’s already aching throat as Henry scrambles to push him away. 

Henry gives out a strangled noise, kicking with all his might but that only makes Boris’ hand go tighter against his neck. Black spots blur his vision like ink splattering across a white canvas.

No...this can’t be it…

He can’t die...not like this. 

Soon his arms go limp and he feels his mind going blank as less and less oxygen travels to his brain. It hurts, but he feels oddly relaxed as Boris’ grip never loosens.

Arms fall to the side as Henry goes limp, Boris tossing him aside like a ragdoll. 

“Good, good my dear Boris.” Alice croons as Boris gives a low grumble stomping away. “Actually, bring him to me Boris. I have a plan for dear Henry. He does have a date with an Angel after all.” Alice chuckles deeply, and the speaker clicks off. 

Boris reaches down to grab Henry’s body and drags him off to the abyss, down to Alice’s domain.

…

He was drowning, the Ink was too much, he could feel it tugging down on him, gripping at his ankles, his hands.

Struggling was futile, this was it, this was the end. 

He could hear the whispers of the lost souls that were in the Ink, the cries and sobs from his former co-workers and other victims that were dragged into the inky darkness.

“I just want to go home..”

“The boss is gonna kill me!”

“Please let me see my wife! My kids!”

Cry after cry Henry finally understood what Alice had meant. Like a fishbowl these voices were swimming around him begging to be free from their cage.

“It’s not your time..” 

A singular voice rose from the cluster whispering softly into Henry’s ear. 

“You have work to do, it is not your time..” 

The darkness suddenly lit up and he could feel gentle hands pulling him up out of the surface, the cool air hitting his face as he sputtered out globs of inky from his mouth, like he had just resurfaced from an lake made of ink. His eyes blurred from the sudden awakening.

“Wake up my little errand boy.” A familiar voice pierced through the fog of his mind as the sounds of heels clicked against the wooden floor. A deep chuckle sent a chill down his spine as he rose to stand, his body feeling awkward and strange.

It was like someone had crammed him into a box for months only to finally let him out. His stance was wobbly as he glanced around looking for the voice. 

“My little errand boy has been awfully naughty.” Alice’s voice gets louder and from the shadows she appears, her halo embedded into her scalp is giving off a faint glow, the dripping of her face wasn’t as bad as it was before, but it still showed bits and pieces of her skull and the inside of her mouth. 

Henry took a step back only to stumble and fall, his legs feeling like jelly as he glanced around to find something, anything to help him defend himself. 

Alice just croons, and Henry notices something odd, had Alice always been this tall? She was basically towering over him, clawed fingers reaching out to touch his face with a strange look to her. “Oh he will definitely enjoy this.” Alice grins, showing off her pearly white teeth as she pinches and pulls at his skin getting Henry to swat her away.

Only to notice his hand, his hand was white and gloved with the fingertips not there showing black fingers. A circle was placed in the middle of his palm, looking almost like Alice Angel’s original gloves. He gave out a noise only to find the sound to be like static from a radio, nothing like he had ever heard come out of his mouth.

“Welcome to Hell my dear Henry, you have fallen from Heaven and now are here to do my bidding. Who knew you would look so angelic.” She chuckles moving as Henry stood back up panicking as he felt all around himself.

A toon. Somehow someway Alice had turned him into a toon. And not just any toon but a look-a-like to Alice Angel. He felt the small horns poking out of his hair and the halo now glowing brighter than ever in his panic. 

What...what did you do to me?! He wanted to shout but nothing came out, just more static. 

Alice smiles as she reaches over to cup Henry’s cheek seeing the now turned toon’s furious face. “Oh don’t be so mad, this is a much better look for you. And it definitely made that Ink Demon furious. You should of seen the temper tantrum he threw.” Alice giggles and Henry rips his head away from her grip panting heavily. 

The angel frowns, her face sullen as she looks at Henry, “Now, we have big things ahead of us. After all I am so close to perfection, and you are going to help me get there my little errand boy. Come, let us get to your first task.” Alice says turning around and walking off to the darkness her halo slightly lighting the way.

Henry stays put for a moment, his mind going a mile a minute. What the hell was going on?! He was a toon, and now somehow Alice’s slave? 

No absolutely not. 

How the hell was he going to go back to being a human? This was absolutely insane.

“Oh Henry, do follow me I don’t want to use force.” Alice snaps her fingers and a large groaning noise can be heard with the sound of loud footsteps. 

Henry sharply turns to find Brute Boris stomping over to him and moves to pick Henry up by the waist hoisting him over his large shoulder with ease. Henry struggles, only to find out that he’s not very strong in this damn body. So he accepts his fate with a garbled sigh as Boris drags him off to where Alice wanted him to follow.

Great, just great.


	2. Collect What’s Necessary

Inside Alice’s little hideaway Henry glanced around, seeing the countless posters of Alice Angel, with Bendy’s face scratched or X-ed out by ink. It seemed like Alice didn’t really approve of Bendy.

Not that Henry really was approving of the behavior of the Little Darling Demon either. But this wasn’t right. None of this was right. 

Especially him being toonified. That was the last thing on his list of crazy things that happened in the past...well he didn’t know how exactly long he had been here. 

And he wasn’t sure he was going to be leaving anytime soon. Not like this.

“Welcome to my parlor.” Alice says as she twirls around to face him, Boris slammed him down onto the ground with a hefty groan. It looked as if to be one of the old recording studios, but remolded no doubt by Alice to her own sense of style.

Which was Alice Angel memorabilia, and of course the ink splattering onto the floorboards every now and then. 

Henry wobbles a bit as he tries to stand, still getting used to the rubber hose like limbs and his now shorter stature. He was a good feet or two taller than the Bendy cutouts that had been littered across the studio.

Now he wasn’t exactly the tallest person, but this was a bit ridiculous. 

“Lost for words? Imagine someone like you being the perfect toon, I’m almost jealous.” Alice croons as she pulls on his cheek stretching it comically until it snaps back like a rubber band. 

Henry pulled away rubbing his face as Alice hummed softly, circling around him like a hawk. “Even as a toon you’re silent.” Angel growls stepping closer to the smaller toon her hands on her hips. “Are you mute or just too good to speak to us? Well honey I have news for you-“ she stops after Henry gives a nod, her head tilted slightly, thinking. Her yellow eye goes up and down, looking him over as she pulls away.

“Oh Henry.” Alice starts, her voice different, and for a moment Henry sees Susie. The sweet kind woman who would come by the animation wing and bring coffee for them all. But her demeanor changes and she scowls. “This means nothing. A silent minion is a better minion I suppose.” 

Henry watches her halo flicker for a moment as she wipes away stray ink that dropped from her eye. She clenches her fists and snaps her fingers. “Boris!” Alice turns her heel as the large Brute Toon stomps over and she placed a hand on Boris’ shoulder. “Why don’t you and Henry go out and do some errands for me, that is why you’re here after all.” 

_ Errands? More errands?!  _ Henry made a gesture with his hands as if to say ‘You got to be kidding me’, to which Alice ignored. She goes into the darker parts of the alcove and comes back with a syringe much like the one he was given when sent to do the tasks much earlier. 

Except it was smaller and he had to use both hands to carry it. It wasn’t heavy, just a bit too bulky for his smaller stature now. “You know what to do, bring me those swollen searchers, and watch out for that Ink Demon, he’s in a cranky mood today.” She waves her clawed fingers and laughs loudly, the halo crushed into her skull flickering like mad as she stepped back into the darkness. 

Henry stood there for a moment wondering if it would be better if he just booked it, he was sure if he just ran like hell they wouldn’t be able to catch him. 

However Brute Boris had other plans and grabbed his shoulder with a large gloved hand and pushed him forward stepping behind him as if he could watch Henry do his work.

Lovely, not only was he to do more shit for Alice, he had his own personal deranged babysitter. 

A garbled mess of static created a small speech bubble with a bunch of scribbles to show off his frustrations. Had it been a different situation he would be almost intrigued by this new body and how it all worked.

Almost.

Boris ushers him to the stairs and they travel back to look for more swollen searchers. Henry was sure Boris’ job was to make sure Henry did his job, and that he wouldn’t get harmed. At least he hoped so.

Henry really didn’t want to know what would happen if he got killed here in this form. A shudder ran down his spine at the thought. His emotions were more up front now, considering that most toons were often so emotional and emotive. Great. 

The halls were empty aside for the sound of ink drip dropping onto the floor and the heavy clunk of Boris’ boots. Henry gripped the syringe closer to his body with a small sigh. His mind was going a mile a minute. 

How the hell was he supposed to go back to his old self? Just what was going on here?! Joey had something to do with this, the man always had a fascination with the occult and superstition. Had he gotten into something he wasn’t supposed and caused all this?

Sammy Lawrence always did say Henry was Joey’s voice of reason. When Henry left, Joey probably didn’t have anyone to stop him from doing all this. 

Perhaps if he found Joey all of this could go away, he could turn back and leave this place for good. 

No…he couldn’t just leave, these people here, they were suffering. His old co-workers and innocent victims, they all were trapped in this inky hell. He had seen a bit of Susie in that Alice, so there had to be a way to fix all this. There just has to be. 

Henry is yanked out of his thoughts when Boris jabs him softly with his glove and the toon glanced up seeing a large searcher, it’s body fat with globs of ink sluggishly moving around without noticing them yet. 

Boris makes a movement as if to say ‘go get him’ and Henry rolls his eyes. Not exactly a best choice to have two silent toons working together. Maybe he should of had Boris learn ASL, that would of been interesting. 

Stepping forward he quietly tiptoed around the room, it seemed to be the same waiting room he had been in before when doing the errands for the first time. The searcher just sat there, with malformed arms and lumps of ink on its body. 

With a small jump Henry launched himself next to the searcher placing the syringe down into its large body getting a squelching shriek as he pulled the top part of the syringe up watching the black substance drain into the tool. The search squirmed and squealed but Henry kept his grip with a small grunt. 

In a moment the ink was drained and all that was left was a stain that once was the searcher. Henry looked up at Boris who just groaned softly turning around and hulking out of the room.

Henry sighed pulling away the syringe up and carried it with him following the large brute to find more searchers.

“Good it seems you both are listening and doing well.” Alice’s voice rings through the speakers as they head down another hallway. “My good boys, doing my errands.” She croons and Henry rolls his eyes shaking his head. 

“Do watch out for the Ink Demon, he’s been slinking around this floor and I rather not have to deal with him.” She reminds them before the speaker shuts off and Henry swallows.

The last thing he wanted was to deal with Bendy. Henry shuffled closer to Boris tapping on the syringe in his nervousness. Making a small clinking noise as he did so.

A small humming noise could be heard from Boris, Henry felt awful for the things Alice had done to him. He placed a hand on the toon’s arm patting it softly. The toon moves slightly and then places a large hand on Henry’s head ruffling his hair his halo bobbing up and down. 

This was so strange, getting a head ruffle from a toon that was ten times larger than he was, not to mention he  _ himself  _ was a toon. 

It would really be great to wake up and find this all was some crazy sleep deprived dream. 

Wouldn’t that be nice? To just wake up in bed without any of this nightmare even happening. 

He felt too much pain to know that this was definitely not a dream. Henry eyes one of the Bendy cutouts resting against the wall, watching them with those eyes. He had a feeling Bendy could see through them, and he obviously didn’t like it when Henry broke the things. 

So Henry left it alone, holding onto the syringe closer keeping up with Boris as they traveled down the labyrinth of halls and rooms. Most were rooms he never even seen before. They really went all out for this studio. 

Boris stops with a slight jerk and Henry nearly smacks into him, a question mark appearing out of a speech bubble as he looked up at the Brute. 

The toon was silent as if listening to something before he glanced around. Henry followed keeping his eyes peeled for anything. 

The Ink was getting thicker as they traveled down the way, it was starting to flood the floor, coming up to their ankles.

Henry never wanted to see ink for the rest of his life after this. He would stick with pencils thank you very much.

Not that he planned on drawing anytime soon. In fact he may find a new hobby. He heard knitting was a relaxing thing to do. 

Shaking his head he swipes away the thought bubble, pausing when seeing the ink starting to move upwards. Oh no that wasn’t good, not good as all. 

Boris steps forward giving out a warning snarl as Henry steps behind him. Hey if the big guy wanted to fight he was more than welcomed to, Henry knew when to back down from a fight. 

He certainly wasn’t going to win anything with this form, he didn’t have a weapon let alone muscle mass. 

“ **So..Alice is got two little playthings now?”** A voice broke through the silence, sounding much like Alice with two layers to its voice, but this one was definitely masculine. 

From the walls a large slender figure slinks out, long arms with one gnarled and clawed, the other globes like Boris and himself. It’s form was basically skeletal, you could see it’s ribs jutting out, and it’s hip bones poking from the inky mass. 

Bendy. 

Boris growls deeply and Bendy chuckles, the sound hysterical and sent shivers down Henry’s spine. This isn’t what Bendy was, what he was designed to be. 

“ **Talk about a bad makeover! Look what she did ta ya.”** Bendy just about spits out the last sentence, ink dripping down a bit faster and more frequently.  **“Don’ worry Boris I’ll give ya mercy. C’mere…”** Bendy takes a large step towards Boris and Boris groans in warning. 

Henry decides it’s time to get the hell out of here and glanced around quickly for an exit anything. They’re in a middle of four hallways connecting each other so there had to be something for him to hide or get away from this all out brawl they were about to have. 

As Boris takes a step forward, Henry catches Bendy’s face and the demon standing there pauses, his body trembling for a bit. Then the smile shutters for a bit, frowning down as ink splatters out of him like a waterfall completely covering his face. 

**“You.”** He states darkly and Henry takes a step back eyes wide.  **“How does it feel huh? To be a disgustin’ toon? To be one of us?”** Bendy’s steps closer ignoring Boris, completely set on Henry. 

Henry didn’t understand why he kept saying that, a disgusting toon. He never once believed Bendy, Boris or anyone that he created to be disgusting. Sure it would be nice if they weren’t all trying to kill him, but that was beside the point. 

Bendy growls, his clawed hand scraping against the wall, stepping even closer. That is, until Boris slams his shoulder into Bendy causing the lanky ink demon to stumble back giving a cry in response. Boris turns to look at Henry with those X’ed out eyes and makes a gesture.

Henry didn’t have to think twice of what Boris was trying to say.  _ Run.  _ And that’s exactly what he did. He knew Boris could take care of himself, and a part of him wanted Boris to not suffer through this fate of being Alice’s puppet. 

Henry slid across the ink covered floor, stumbling a bit as Bendy screeches in anger from the toon running away. Henry grips the syringe tightly as he runs down the hall hearing loud scuffling as Boris and Bendy battle it out. 

He nearly slams into a corner when he turns, stopping when seeing a vent not too far from. Quickly Henry races to the metal vent slamming the back of the syringe and with a thunk the grate falls off. 

It was much easier to get into the vent, the only problem was the stupid syringe. He had half the mind to leave it, but then Alice wouldn’t be too happy and who knows what she would do. He didn’t need both her and Bendy angry at him. 

“ **HENRY WHERE ARE YA?! YA CANT HIDE FOREVER.”** Bendy shouts as Henry scoots deeper into the vents his halo lighting the way, despite flickering a bit in his own panic. 

Something grabs his foot, causing Henry to turn around and see Bendy crouched over with his clawed hand gripping his foot, showing the biggest smile on the demon’s face. 

“ **Gotcha.”** Bendy states dragging Henry out of the vent, there wasn’t anything to grab on to so Henry was pulled out instantly, the demon still holding him by his foot lifting him off the ground. 

**“Finally. No more runnin’, no more hiding. It’s just you and me, PAL.”** Bendy just about sneers and Henry squirms in his grip, being held upside down wasn’t exactly an easy thing to get out of. Especially if your captor was seven foot tall and had the grip of steel. 

Bendy walks down the hall with Henry in hand and the toon panics looking for something anything to get him out. He sees the light of his halo flickering like mad and then that gives him an idea. A small lightbulb appears beside him, luckily Bendy is too busy with his triumph to notice. 

Henry reaches for his halo finding that it was solid, like a ring of metal just floating above him and held it tightly in his hand. With a grunt and a swing of his fist he slams the halo into Bendy’s face causing the demon the shout and drop Henry onto the floor.

Bendy pauses and looks at him with almost surprise,  **“Did ya...Did ya just hit me with ya HALO?!”** Bendy screams as Henry scrambles up and rushes off, getting the demon to yell and chase after him. 

Here we go again with the running and the chasing. Henry did everything to try and stop the demon, throwing down boxes and cans to get Bendy to slow down. It was pretty effective but Bendy would just crush the things. 

Finally he got to a place where the ink wasn’t flooding the floor and saw a wooden pallet just resting against the wall. With a mighty heave he slammed the pallet down making it just about obscure the walkway and dashed up the stairs into the Angel’s alcove. He could hear Bendy shouting which meant that he was successful. 

Henry had managed to pick the syringe up one the way back so that was good news. He only wished he knew what happened to Boris. 

“Oh good you’re back.” Alice states as Henry turns his head panting and heaving, the angel is resting on a couch her legs crossed and staring at him with that one yellow eye. “And you brought the ink, what a good errand boy you are.” She croons and then gestures to place the syringe into the container much like the one he had when he first did her errands. 

Henry sighs finally falling to the floor feeling exhausted. That was a bit too much, and he was sure if he was back in his old body he would of had a heart attack from that. 

“Don’t get comfortable, I have more things for you to do.” Alice says as she steps away from the room no doubt to do her business with the thick ink. 

Henry groans and flops down onto the floor, this was going to be an absolute nightmare.   
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! I had a lot of fun with this, and I hope you all enjoyed it too.


	3. Gospel of Dismay

_A lone figure stands before a room, his back to the Ink Demon, hands clasped behind him. He doesn’t move from where he is standing, nor does he bother to turn his head._

_“Bendy, do tell me why_ **_he_ ** _is not here with us? I gave you specific orders. Do you mean to disobey me?” the man asks, his tone cold and harsh._

_“_ **_Joey, it-there was a problem, I-”_ **

_“Enough!” The man, Joey, interrupts, turning around and slamming his hands onto the desk, causing the demon to flinch and curl into itself._

_Joey straightens himself, dusts his suit jacket off, and stares at the demon with a disapproving look. “Excuses do not bring us results, Bendy,” he states in a softer tone, as if trying to control his temper. As if speaking to a child. “I asked you to complete a simple task and you continue to fail me. I need_ **_him_ ** _here.”_

_Bendy dips his head, his lanky form hunched and pulled into himself._ **_“‘M tryin’ Joey. Really I am.”_ ** _Bendy stammers, trying to explain himself,_ **_“It’s just that…”_ **

_Joey waves a hand, silencing the demon. “I know what that malformed_ **_angel_ ** _has done. It will not ruin my plan. After all…” Joey opens a drawer and places a bottle down onto the desk with a small clank. “There are ways of ridding him of his... condition.”_

 

...

 

There isn’t much to do in Alice’s little ‘safe haven’. Alice herself had disappeared off into some other room after taking the syringe, so Henry assumes she’s doing something with the ink.

Perhaps she was like a drug addict and needs the ink to feel ‘perfect’. It isn’t like he _wants_ to know what she did with the ink, nor does he plan on asking.

Henry decided it was best to stay put for the time being; after already pissing off Bendy and losing Brute Boris, he didn’t need his head on the chopping block.

So the only thing left to do is to explore this little space that was free of Bendy and the searchers. The room wasn’t too big; it had a door leading to where Alice went, but he didn’t want to explore that just yet. Alice had the power to turn him into a toon and create Brute Boris, so he doesn’t want to put his toe out of line.

Yet.

Oh no, he isn’t going to go down belly-up. No, he plans on figuring out what the hell is going on here. Toon or not, he feels like it’s his responsibility now to get to the bottom of this mystery.

He lets out a long sigh, and reaches up for his glowing halo, feeling the odd metal with his gloved hands. He didn’t expect it to feel so...real. Henry twirls the halo in his hand, watching small strands of light glitter off the golden circle.

With a flick of Henry’s wrist, he sends the halo flying, watching it twirl in a circle, bouncing off the wall until it flies back into his hand.

It’s almost like a boomerang. With a slight grin, Henry places his halo back atop his head. This could definitely come in handy later, much like it did with Bendy.

Henry starts walking around the room, looking for something, anything, that could be of use or of interest to him.

Mostly, there are a lot of posters of Alice and little toys, things like that. He chucks yet another Alice Angel plush toy to the side as he looks in a small box next to the couch that Alice had been sitting on when he came back from the Ink Demon chase.

He reaches into the box to find an audio recorder and quietly clicks play.

_“They really think they can trick me, I know what’s happening here. Firing me to keep quiet, that’s a lot of bull. Replacing me! Me! I’m Alice Angel, not that...that girl.”_ It was Susie Campbell, the original voice actor of Alice.

_“No, I shouldn’t be mad at her, we are practically sisters, and she’s the sweetest gal. It’s all this mess with Joey Drew. He’s cooking up something, Sammy knows it too. And now he’s gone. No one has seen him for two weeks! Joey says he’s on vacation...but the thing is, Sammy_ **_never_ ** _goes on vacation._

_Something’s obviously not right. First Henry, and now this. Joey plans on giving me one final goodbye, and I have a feeling that it’s not a going-away party.”_

The audio clicks off and Henry stares at the device with quiet concern. Susie had been fired, about to be kicked out of the studio, and then what?

What exactly happened to her? How did she end up like **that**?

The question keeps ringing through his head: _just what did Joey do here?_

Placing the recorder back into the box, he sighs; he was getting more questions than answers here. He lightly kicks the worn box aside only to pause when glancing over at the mirror leaning against the wall.

There’s cracks spread across the glass, no doubt Alice’s doing. She’s always talking about being perfect, after all. He’s surprised the mirror is still intact.

Seeing his reflection for the first time is... _uncomfortable,_ to say the least. He looks small, thin, and just _wrong_. Pie-cut eyes, washed-out sepia coloring, and even his outfit was toonified, adding a bow-tie to cover his non-existent neck much like Bendy’s own in his original design.

Henry stands there poking at his face, stretching his cheeks until they snap back, finding that this is indeed real and he’s a living, breathing toon.

“Are you done with your moping?” Alice’s voice breaks through the silence and Henry’s head whips around so fast he’s surprised he doesn’t get whiplash from it. Alice hums gently, her fingers tracing the edge of the couch, looking a bit paler than usual.

Her skin is still dripping on that one side, but her halo seems to shine brighter than usual.

_Oh, Susie_. Henry frowns softly as she moves closer to him, her clawed hand tracing the floating halo above his head.

“I have another task for you,” she says. “Outside these walls I placed a perimeter to keep those disgusting searchers and other abominations out. I want you to check it, and make sure it won’t be tampered with.” Her voice is firm, her words an order. She obviously fears that if she’s touched, she will revert back to whatever she was before.

But then, why would the thick Ink make her better? Wouldn’t it just worsen her condition? Henry doesn’t understand how this Ink even works. Is it some sort of miracle serum or something? It surely didn’t seem anything special.

It just seems like a big nuisance, if he’s quite honest.

“Well, what are you staring at? Did I say for you to just stay here and gawk?! Am I not making myself clear, **HENRY**?” Her voice deepens as she moves closer, a clawed hand lifting his chin, or what he assumed was his chin, since he didn’t really have a neck to begin with.

Henry puts his hands up in surrender, not really wanting Alice to claw his eyes out. So he backs away and heads out, wishing that Boris was here to keep an eye out for Bendy and other creatures lurking around.

This place was a maze. Henry had a good sense of direction, but this place was absolutely insane. He felt every time he turned a corner something new appeared, all while he was walking deeper and deeper into this labyrinth.

That gave him an idea. As ink dripped onto the floor from the ceiling, Henry gently placed his fingers into the substance and quietly drew a small symbol to help him navigate better. It was a simple thing: a sunflower, Linda’s favorite.

She had died of cancer the following year, leaving Henry alone and in agony for the loss of his wife. She was his everything, and when she was gone, Henry didn’t know what to do.

Then Joey’s letter came in when he was at an all time low. Some help _that_ was. He thought maybe it would help him to rekindle the flame of their friendship after all these years.

Obviously not. Now he’s in some wacky cartoon nightmare, and there’s no sign of Joey in sight.

The inky symbol is complete with just a few strokes, and Henry nods in approval. It’s been a while since he’s drawn something, so it was nice, despite the situation he was in.

Leaving the hallway, he continues to travel down and find the perimeter that Alice spoke of. She was surprisingly crafty; he supposed that was the part of Susie that was still there. She had a knack with arts and crafts, tinkering with things as she would study her lines that Joey gave her. There were countless birthdays where Susie would make cute little things to place on his desk while he worked on animating the Dancing Demon.

Henry misses those times, before the war, before all this. The happy memories that settle in his heart are decades in the past, but he still longs to go back.

But that’s in the past, and hanging onto it often damages you. Pushing forward, Henry places those thoughts into the back of his mind, instead focusing on the small contraption placed on the corner of the hall.

It’s a bit of gears and wire, looking almost like a tripwire of sorts. Some sort of alarm, maybe, to alert Alice when these searchers and other unwanted things came by.

Kneeling down, he glances at the wires, hearing the speaker to his right click to life.

“Good, you found one. The gears should be wound up, making the wire tight,” Alice explains and Henry nods. So it _is_ like an alarm system. So Alice can stay in her little hiding place and not come out if they do come. Or if it’s something she needs.

Like those corpses of Boris and the other decaying toons.

Henry reaches for the mechanism and turns the gears, hearing the click-click of the machine as the wire tightens, creating a makeshift trip-wire.

One done, now to the next one. Henry quietly steps over the wire, glancing down one hall, his halo slightly lighting the way. The lights were dim, barely showing down the hall, so he braced himself stepping to the left.

He really wishes he had an axe or something to defend himself. He’s pretty much a walking target now, with nothing to defend himself. Smaller and weaker made him less of a threat, so he’s anxious as he travels down the hall.

Seeing the glint of metal in the darkness, he walks towards the other wire and quickly winds the mechanism up. With a satisfied nod, he paints the symbol on the wall and makes his way to the next location.

There’s a sound, like labored breathing. Is someone hurt? Henry swallows and follows the noise, the sound getting louder, joined by whimpers and small cries. He hopes it’s another person, someone sane.

Well...he isn’t sure if he can even communicate with someone if they do find him. Maybe he should look for a clipboard and carry that around.

The crying gets louder, and Henry rushes down the corner to find Brute Boris leaning against the wall, ink splattered everywhere. It looks like Boris dragged himself this far, but he didn’t make it all the way back to Alice’s hideout. The halo held above his head is cracked and the harness is barely latched on. His ribs are more prominent, the white bone sticking out of his chest completely.

Boris catches Henry’s gaze and gives a frightened noise, making Henry immediately rush to the injured toon. Boris pants harshly, his X-ed out eyes filled to the brim with inky tears.

He looks...scared. Henry gently grabs Boris’s hand, squeezing it gently. Boris shifts slightly, reaching into his overall pockets, and holds his glove out for Henry, gesturing at him with soft sighs. Henry opens his free palm and sees a set of keys placed into his hand.

_“Has anyone seen my dang keys?”_

Henry takes in a sharp breath, looking at Boris, who gives a shaky grin. Boris was...Wally Franks? The happy-go-lucky janitor, who made Henry laugh from his forgetfulness. The kid that would always complain about working, but never seemed to quit because of the people. Wally was devastated that Henry was leaving, and demanded that Henry needed to write to them all.

Henry had, but he has a feeling his letters never came through.

Boris-Wally coughs up a lungful of ink, his body shaking as he looks to Henry with a peaceful smile. Henry grips the keys tightly, squeezing the larger toon’s hand with a mournful noise, ignoring the scratching feeling from his throat, the burning sensation that came along with talking or even making such noises.

The toon begins to melt, bubbling away into ink, and all Henry can do is watch. Ink runs through his fingers as Wally disappears with a final sigh. He’s no longer suffering, hopefully. Henry falls to the floor with a small sob, inky black tears falling onto the puddle of what was Wally Franks.

This isn’t fair, nothing about this is _fair_ . This place was once his home, and the people here was his family. So watching this all happen to his friends, to the people he used to work with, to be placed with such a curse, was unacceptable. There _had_ to be a way to fix this.

Slamming his fist onto the floorboards, Henry gulps for air. He needs to be strong. For Sammy, Wally, Susie, Norman, for them _all_. He will not wallow in his own sorrow. Not when there are things to be done. He needs to fix this all.

Henry moves to stand, giving a small mental apology for Wally and what happened to him, and continues onwards.

 

...

 

The final mechanism is checked, and Henry feels exhausted. He wonders if he needs to sleep, to eat, being a toon. As he turns to follow his symbols back to the hideout, he stops, feeling a chill down his spine. He freezes, glancing around and looking for clues that Bendy was here.

Ink seems to defy gravity around Bendy, splattering everywhere, and his lanky form is not easy to miss.

He can hear heavy breathing, mumbled words under someone’s breath as if they were frustrated with something.

Panicking, Henry starts to slowly back away. Bendy is near, but doesn’t see Henry yet, so there’s a chance to escape him. Henry searches for a Little Miracle Station, a vent, or something to hide in since he’s not about to repeat the last encounter, not without Wally here to save him.

Henry does find a Miracle Station and quickly opens the door, glad he isn’t too short to reach the handle, and jumps into the small closet-like structure. He leans against the far wall, seeing the light peeking through the slot in the door. Quickly, he reaches up to grab his halo and places it near his chest to keep it from illuminating the small space.

**“I know you’re here…”** Bendy says loudly, and Henry swallows, closing his eyes and praying that Bendy doesn’t find him. **“Come out, come out wherever ya are.”** The sound of a claw scraping against the wall gets louder, and Henry can hear the splash of ink as Bendy steps closer.

**“No more Boris, no more Angel. Just you and me, buddy ol’ pal,”** Bendy calls out, and Henry holds his breath. There is no way the Ink Demon has seen him.

“Oh please, you really think he’s just going to walk out and meet you?” Alice’s voice rings from the speaker and Bendy gives out a growl of frustration.

**“Stay outta this, Angel,”** Bendy spits.

Alice chuckles, deeply sounding amused. “Aw, is the wittle demon frustrated that his plaything isn’t cooperating?” she teases, taunting him. “Of course he won’t. He’s _mine_.”

Bendy snarls, his voice shrieking, **“I told ya to stay outta this! Henry is** **_MINE_ ** **, how dare you interfere!”** He slams into the Miracle Station and Henry nearly falls over, but he keeps himself from making any noise.

Alice is distracting him, Henry realizes. Bendy has a temper, and she was making him putty in her hands. When Bendy is in a rage, he stomps off and tries to break something. There’s a noise like something is slipping into the Ink and then it goes quiet.

“You’re clear, now get out and come back. I need you again,” Alice states, and Henry quietly reaches for the door, peeking out to see an empty hall, claw marks littering the walls. Ink was dripping everywhere, but there was no sign of Bendy.

Sighing, Henry left the Miracle Station and made the decision to get the hell out of this corridor before Bendy came back. Did Alice just save him? At least she was helping him. Maybe Susie wasn’t entirely gone. Maybe there was still hope.

Henry walks down the stairs, noticing a sunflower poking out of a crack of the wall. A real life sunflower, just...like the ones he had drawn. But that can’t be possible.

With gentle fingers, Henry touches the petals, finding them to be soft under his fingertips. He moves to pull at the small flower, finding it surprisingly stuck to the wall. With a tilted head, he looks at the flower. Just what was happening? How did life even grow here, with all this ink?

Did _he_ do this? No, absolutely not, he can’t just _create_ life like this. Perhaps it was just some sort of life poking through the cracks of these walls, creating small rays of hope with the knowledge that something so gentle and pure can grow in a place like this.

Henry lets the flower go. He’s had enough distractions. He makes a step forward, but stops, hearing a creak of the floorboards. He barely gets the chance to turn around and-

_WHAM_

A blunt object hits Henry in the head and he tumbles to the floor, falling over with a small thud.

There are heavy footsteps, and a small hum echoes the hall.

“Careful, my lost sheep, these corridors are filled with sin. Fear not, for he will lead the way. I shall bring you the light.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on this fic has a beta-reader! I never had one before so it was awesome to have someone point out the mistakes and errors to make this fic read smoother. 
> 
> Thanks Avablook so much! I appreciate it!
> 
> Their Tumblr! avablook.tumblr.com/


	4. The Hand That Draws

“Hush little sheep, for the time of reckoning is here. I have acquired the traitor, and he will be pleased with our loving sacrifice.” A voice rings out through the haze of unconsciousness.

Henry can feel himself being dragged; he can’t move. Everything is blurry, and the sound of ink dripping is more frequent than usual. 

“Peace, it is time for you to sleep,” the voice whispers back, and Henry can’t help but follow the deep-voiced command, gently falling back to sleep.

 

...

 

The next time he wakes, it’s dark. The faint candlelight barely illuminates the corners of the small room. The smell of ink is more prominent here, and the dripping of the substance is a constant stream.

There’s the sound of something creaking, and he can feel his own body swaying from side to side. He shakes his head to chase away the aching feeling and hazy vision, only to find himself hanging upside down above a pentagram of sorts.

Henry grunts, struggling under the tight rope as he frantically glances around. Where was he? He remembers being hit in the head...but by who?

“Ah, you are awake, good. It seems you obtained the blessing of the Angel; no matter, our savior does not care which form you may take,” the voice from before states, and Henry squints in the sudden light of a candle as the figure steps forward. 

Standing in front of Henry is none other than Sammy Lawrence, dripping with ink, a Bendy mask placed firmly on his head. He places the candle down on a small table to Henry’s right and hums the soft tune of Bendy’s theme song. 

“I could hear him. His gracious voice pulled me from the blasted ink cage, lifting me back to reality. He called for me, his prophet, to bring you here. I will be blessed eternally for the deed of providing the traitor to him,” Sammy rambles, and Henry struggles under the ropes, trying to see if he can slip through, but they are too tight. 

Sammy pauses, lifting his head as if hearing something before going back to his monologue. “Fear not, for the end is near! No longer will we be imprisoned in this ink-ridden cage, for our bodies will be free! Once the sacrifice is made.” 

Not this again. Sammy had trapped him here before, but the last time he was human. That, and Bendy had turned on Sammy, leaving Henry to escape. This time was different. He’s now a goddamn toon, and there is no way he can fist fight with Sammy in his condition. 

Henry feels the panic rise as he looks around for a way to cut the rope. Maybe he could swing around and find a rusted beam to cut the ropes. There isn’t much he can see considering that the light from the candle is quite dim. 

An idea pops in his head, with a small speech bubble accompanying the said thought, causing a light bulb to go off. With a determined look, he focuses on the metal band floating above his head, watching the light flicker a bit, before blasting out a bright light. As if the light is too much, Sammy shields his mask’s eyes with a grunt and Henry glances around.

With enough light, he notices a small, broken wooden beam with a jagged edge sticking out from the wall, broken in half by some sort of force. No doubt from one of Bendy’s tantrums. There. With a small twist of his body, he attempts to swing himself towards the beam, but a hand claps over his head, gripping his small horns.

“Sinner! Your tricks will not work on me,” Sammy barks as Henry feels his grip grow tighter, “Take your place in this story, we all have roles that must be played,” he says grimly, and Henry wishes he could see the real Sammy Lawrence. 

The Sammy who had a hot temper, and a beautiful talent for music, able to make anyone tap their toes along to the sound. The Sammy that was scared of his religious father and attempted to change the subject whenever religion was brought up. 

Not this crazy, ink-obsessed madman. 

Sammy releases him after he hears the sound of sloshing, like something being dragged in water. Or ink, in this case. “Ah, my fellow believers, good times are near!” Henry lifts his head to see several searchers trailing into the room, making soft gurgling noises. 

“The preparation is almost done, I do request for you to keep an eye on the traitor as I finish the final piece,” Sammy says and steps over the searchers, humming the same song once more. 

Henry glances down at the searchers, watching them all with unease. He can feel sweat falling down his face, the black liquid dripping down onto the floor. He needs to get the hell out of here. If Bendy finds him, he will kill him. 

That brings a question to him, could he  _ die _ ? Would he brought back through the ink like Sammy and Alice? Would he lose his mind? Henry shakes his head, this wasn’t the time to question such things. 

He feels if he stays in this studio he’ll lose his mind. 

Deciding that is  _ not  _ about to happen, he squirms under the ropes for a good minute or so, finding that one of his arms is able to pull out of the tight ropes. With a satisfied noise, he tries to pull apart the ropes, but the damn material is too tough for his weak toon hands. 

Peering back down at the searchers, it doesn’t look he’s caused any suspicion yet. Good. With a huff he tries to reach the knot that holds him upside down, but it’s too far away. He groans, feeling his halo touch the rope as he attempts to lift himself up.

Wait. 

A light bulb goes off once more, as Henry uses his free hand to grab the floating metal, feeling the band tilting his head sightly. It’s worth a shot, and he’s prepared to do anything. He doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself; the creaking of the rope could cause the searchers to go crazy. 

So he holds the halo tightly in his hand and quietly rubs the metal back and forth against the rope. After a few seconds of just scraping the thing against the tight ropes, he feels the rope begin to fray. This makes him go faster, but not fast enough to cause a lot of noise. 

Small twaps can be heard as the ropes snap, freeing his other arm. Adjusting himself, he uses his free hand to grip the rope, just in case the rope snaps and causes him to fall. He doesn’t want to faceplant right onto the floor. 

Gripping the rope as tight as he can, the final rope breaks, and with a swift motion Henry flips himself over so he’s right-side up. Shaking off the dizziness from being upside down, he breathes out a soft sigh. This rope isn’t going to hold him for long. What can he do? 

Cause a distraction? There’s a cabinet not too far from where he is, he could swing over and jump on it, then try to find a way to make the searchers leave. They aren’t exactly bright, so this should be easy. 

Lifting his legs, he gains momentum to swing towards the cabinet, careful of the searchers sitting below on the floor, not really moving or watching him like Sammy had said to. 

A swift launch to the cabinet is easy, the thing makes a loud creaking noise but the searchers don’t move. This studio is a old place, and no doubt makes those sort of noises all the time. Henry can feel his heart beating fast against his chest. God, he was lucky to not have a heart attack down here. 

Now to get them out of here, that was the hard part. Henry frowned, a small speech bubble of gears appeared beside him to signify that he was thinking. With a swipe of his hand he banished the bubble, huffing softly. 

The flowers come to mind, and this is probably the best time to experiment. Crouching a bit, he let the ink that was dripping beside him fall into his right palm, letting it pool for a bit before dipping his left hand into the liquid. Turning to the wall, he decided to draw a simple cup, something he could throw and cause a noise. There were two exits in this room, so he just had to throw the cup in one direction and then run in the other.

With small strokes of his hand he made a simple outline, and then waited. For a couple seconds nothing happened, and he was slightly disappointed, though not surprised. Turning his head to try and find something else, he stopped halfway as he heard slight bubbling. Glancing back at the picture, the wall was bubbling with black ink, the liquid pouring out of the wall and falling in a small blob. The mass of ink wobbled a bit before making a pristine cup.

Just like the one he had drawn. 

The painting on the wall was gone, and the cup laid in front of him, confirming his doubts.  _ How  _ he could do this, he didn’t know. Right now wasn’t the best time to figure things out, so he grabbed the cup and leaned over the edge of the cabinet. 

Deciding to chuck the item to the right, Henry tosses the cup at the doorway. The cup falls to the hall with a loud crash, causing the searchers to lift their heads. With loud groans they sluggishly move out of the room, and that’s Henry’s cue to leave. 

Hopping down he quickly rushes to the left door, sliding through the doorway. Good, good this was good! He just needs to find his way out of here. No Wally, or Alice, this was all him. He could do this. 

Turning around, he skids to a halt seeing Sammy dragging some sort of heavy wooden item, looking like the door to a coffin. Henry catches his gaze and the man drops what he is holding immediately. 

“ **YOU!** ” Sammy states furiously, and Henry makes an awkward wave his heart just about to rip out of his chest. “Must you be so stubborn?” the man shouts as he runs at Henry with such speed Henry panics. He notices a loose floorboard and makes a split-second plan. 

With a swift stomp, the floorboard lifts up into the air, and Sammy slams into it quite comically. Groaning, Sammy tumbles back falling onto his rear, leaving Henry an opportunity to haul ass and leave. He picks his feet up and tries to run pass the deranged man, seeing the Bendy mask has fallen from the hit to the head. 

Sammy is able to grab his foot as he tries to run past him, and the toon gives out a gurgled shout as Sammy falls bellyfirst to try and pull Henry back to him. Henry falls to the floor too, and the toon struggles against his grip, kicking and fighting with all his might. 

The man is able to get Henry close to him, and Henry swipes at Sammy’s face, the ink splattering to the side as a bit of flesh is uncovered and Henry sees a widened eye staring back at him. 

Sammy halts completely, his grip loosening as he lifts his hands up to grab at his face, his blue eye looking down at Henry as the toon falls to the floor. 

“Henry?” the musician asks as the ink starts to drip back down his face and all Henry can do is make a static-like noise before crawling away. 

Getting up, Henry turns and runs, not looking back as Sammy sits on the floor completely and utterly confused.

 

...

 

Henry just about collapses when he finds a safe room, his breathing heavy and frantic. Did he even have organs in this form, or was it just an illusion?

_ The illusion of living. _

Immediately he shakes his head at that, shuts the door behind him and places a chair so no one can get in. He needs rest, a breather from all that has happened. He slides onto the floor with a long sigh. 

Somehow he’s able to create things,  _ life _ with his hands, or with the ink, he isn’t too sure. Just something else to add to this muddled mess of things. 

He has a cartoon hellbent on killing him, a crazy mixture of human and toon commanding him to do her bidding, a equally nuts musician covered in ink also after him; in general, everyone here wants to kill him. Henry just doesn’t have a single clue as to  _ why.  _

Was it because he left? That he didn’t keep in touch? Joey made it very clear he didn’t want to see him again. Especially after telling him that he would be gone for who knows how long. You couldn’t escape the draft, and it wasn’t exactly his fault. He didn’t want to go to war. 

To see the grim faces, the mangled bodies, the loud explosions that would never escape him, and the nightmares that never ended. 

Henry grips his head in frustration, his body curling closer to him. If only he could just explain himself, but that’s out of the question. Even in this toon body, talking hurts, and his voice sounds like a radio trying to find a station, or a television going static. 

No, enough. He did not need to be wallowing in his own self-pity. He saw Sammy back there, just like he saw Susie. They’re still in there, buried in the layers of ink. He just needs to find a way to break them free. 

Henry went to searching the room, finding it to be their old staff lounge, where everyone would sit around and chat, eat their meals and gossip about the next episode. There were worn out sofas and tables that had fallen over. All the Bendy posters had been ripped to shreds, and cobwebs were in every corner of the room. The room smelled of ink and dust. 

It looked like the refrigerator was replaced by more piping and mechanics for the Ink Machine; Henry bet that Wally had a fit about that. He always was passionate about food. 

Henry gives a slight wheeze-like chuckle at that. He doesn’t know how many times Wally would beg him for his sandwiches, Linda was always a wonderful cook. After a while, Linda started packing two sandwiches, one for him, the other for Wally. 

Such good times, ones he would hold dear to his heart. 

Falling onto the old and worn sofa, he feels the cushions sink lower, trapping him in a soft yet scratchy embrace. It won’t hurt to rest his eyes just a bit, then he can get back to figuring things out. 

He’s...just...so...tired…

 

…

 

_ “I can’t believe you’re doing this! Leaving us, leaving  _ **_me_ ** _ ,” Joey shouts, obviously torn over the news he was given.  _

_ “It’s not my choice Joey, you know this. I can’t just decline,” Henry argues, but he knows once Joey has an opinion there’s no way of swaying him. He was like a goddamn rock. “I’ll keep in touch and everything, I--” _

_ “What will happen?” Joey interrupts, his tone furious and betrayed. “What will happen to the studio when you leave? No one can animate Bendy like you can, and just when we were about to introduce Alice Angel!” _

_ Henry dips his head sighing softly, “You have talent here, it’s a group effort. I’m sure we will do fine. Plus I’ll come back.”  _

_ Joey shakes his head, “This was our  _ **_dream_ ** _ , and you just want to abandon us?! Them?!” His body is starting to warp, swirling and twisting, growing larger and his voice begins to change.  _

_ “ _ **_You left us Henry. How could you?”_ ** _ The figure that stands before him is now Bendy, claws reaching out for him swiping at his shirt pulling him closer.  _ **_“That’s all you do, is run and never look back. You did this, you brought us here.”_ **

_ The Ink starts to drip, filling the room as Bendy grips his neck squeezing tighter and tighter. “ _ **_We never asked for this, Henry.”_ **

_ Henry can’t speak or reply, feeling useless once again as the ink starts to blur the lines of reality, Bendy dripping away to nothing. Henry falls into the abyss of ink sinking, drowning.  _

With a sharp jolt Henry wakes, falling off the sofa with a loud thud. Ink splatters off him in his distress, the beads of black liquid falling down his face as he pants heavily.  _ A dream _ . It was just a dream.

Henry lifts himself up, wiping off the stray ink with a shudder. Usually the nightmares were of bombs and faceless people laying still on the ground. Never  **that** . He wonders what time it is, and how long he’s been here. He doesn’t have a watch and none of the clocks seem to be working. 

Well, he can’t just stay here all his life. He needs to find a way out of here, while figuring out the rest of the secrets that were hidden in this hellhole. He wonders if Alice was mad at him for being attacked. Oh well. Nothing he can do about it now. 

Henry quietly moves the chair out of the way and opens the door, sticking his head out to look around. Nothing. Good, he really didn’t want to walk into Sammy, or Bendy for that matter. Stepping out of the room, he shuts the door behind him and walks down the hall. This was a floor he hadn’t explored before; perhaps it would lead back to Alice’s hideout. 

He just needs to search for the sunflowers. Keeping track of the walls, Henry travels down the dusty halls, more abandoned than the rest, it seems. The broken floorboards, and rotting ceiling (from the ink seeping through, no doubt) are more prominent here. His halo gives out a gentle light, and Henry trails his fingers against the peeling walls with caution. 

So far no Bendy cutouts, or posters, which is good. Henry has an inkling that they’re connected to the real Ink Demon, hence why Bendy came around when Henry cut the cutouts at Alice’s orders. 

Henry was about to turn the corner, only to stop at the sound of voices. 

“ **YOU LOST HIM?!”** a familiar voice snarled: Bendy, causing ink to fall and puddle around Henry’s feet. Henry pressed his back against the wall, leaning his head over to eavesdrop. 

“My Lord, have forgiveness on my soul. For I was close, please--” 

**“SHUDDUP! I didn’t bring ya back just ta have ya fail me,”** Bendy just about spits. So Bendy brought Sammy back? Why? Did Bendy really feel threatened by Henry, or was it that he was working with someone else?

Joey?

No, Joey wouldn’t try to kill him. Would he? 

“I am but a worm before you, my Lord. I will do as you please. I will find him,” Sammy replies, begging for forgiveness and not to be sent back to the ink. Was that death to them? 

**“Will ya be quiet?! Someone is listenin’...”**

Henry freezes as the atmosphere grows cold, the silence settling in. He hadn’t even made a noise, how did Bendy even notice him? Henry stands perfectly still, not wanting to draw any more attention; the ink was starting to spread out, hitting at his feet. Henry swallows tightly, he needs to get out of here, but if he starts running, they’ll notice. 

If he keeps standing still...perhaps..

**“There ya are…”** Bendy creeps out of the shadows, a large claw reaching for Henry. The toon yelps, tumbling backwards as Bendy swipes at him.  **“Now I’m tired of this cat n’ mouse game, Henry.  C’mere!”** He lunges for Henry, but the toon is too quick, easily dodging the larger demon. 

Henry runs down the hall, nearly slipping on the ink now flooding the room. The walls are covered in ink, spiderwebbing across the peeling wallpaper as Bendy chases after him. 

What to do, what to do?! 

There/s no miracle station, nor is there a vent to crawl in this time. He just has to outwit Bendy this time. He can do this, he created Bendy so he knows his outs and ins. For the most part. He ignores the fact that Bendy is  **extremely** off-model. Why that was, he didn’t have a clue. 

**“No more runnin’!”** Bendy shouts as Henry comes to dead end. There was nothing, nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. 

Unless…

It worked before, so it had to work now. Henry grabs a blob of ink off the floor, runs to the end of the hall, and draws a very quick and sloppy door frame with a handle on it. He can hear Bendy running faster, and like the cup the door outline bubbles and drips. 

**“I GOTCHA!”** Bendy shouts. As the Ink Demon launches himself, Henry grabs the door handle and opens the door with a swift motion, slamming it right into Bendy’s face. 

The Ink Demon faceplants the now-bare wall, the door disappearing from sight with Henry behind it. Bendy screams in anger.  **“DAMN YOU HENRY!”**

Henry, on the other hand, doesn’t hear the loud shouts from the outraged toon. Instead, he feels like he’s running in jelly. The ink is thick and it’s hard to see, but he can just make out a light. Running towards it, he puts a hand out, pressing through the mass of black ink and feeling a draft against his fingers. 

He pushes his entire body with a loud gasp, surfacing once more. With a slick pop, Henry falls out of the wall, hitting his rear. He gives out a strangled noise, almost like a relieved chuckle. 

Well, he supposes that worked. Now the question was: where the hell was he? Lifting himself up and brushing the droplets of ink off him he glances around, finding himself in an office of sorts.

Oddly enough, this room isn’t touched by ink. It’s pristine, with only a few cobwebs here and there. Henry spots a large desk in front of him, and a leather chair turned away from him. Was someone...in it? On the desk was a bottle of sorts, he was too far away to make out what it could be.

Suddenly a hand grabs his arm, and Henry looks down to see a slimy searcher groaning at him and holding him down. Henry grunts, trying to pull away, but stops when he sees a figure rise up from the chair.

“Welcome home, dear friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun duun, sorry for all the cliff hangers. But you know I love you all, thanks for all the kudos and comments!!
> 
> And thanks to my beta reader avablook!


	5. Shade Me From the Truth

Before Henry stands a man of lanky stature, wearing a pristine black suit with a red ascot tie, a Bendy broach resting between the collar. 

His hair is black and slicked back, not a hair out of place. Everything about him screams  _ ‘important’ _ and  _ ‘clean’ _ . He has a gentle, soft smile on his lips. 

“Hello there, dear friend. It has been a while, hasn’t it?” His voice is familiar. Joey Drew in the flesh. He steps away from the desk and stands a good foot away from the searcher who has a tight grip on Henry’s arm. Joey aged well, not a wrinkle in sight, only a few streaks of gray hair to show that he has aged. 

Henry doesn’t say anything, but his heart is beating fast. It had been so long since he had seen his best friend, the one he had grown up with and shared his dream with. 

Joey frowns at the searcher. “I do apologize for them. They can be quite...hands-on.” Joey laughs at his own joke and snaps his fingers; the searcher immediately lets go, sinking away from Henry.

The toon rubs his arm, his shoulders hunched, unsure how he should feel at this moment. Grateful? Suspicious? Worried? Angry? 

“Come, come, friend! We have much to talk about.” The man waves his hand, gesturing for the toon to sit on the chair opposite his own. Henry hesitates for a moment, but seeing the smile on Joey’s face makes him feel slightly more at ease.

This was what he had been expecting, not like the rest of the studio has been. Just the two of them, chatting and reconnecting.

Henry steps to the chair and quietly sits, and Joey’s smile grows wider. “I do sincerely apologize for your condition. This was not the way I wished to have things done. Fear not, for I can fix you in a jiffy!” Joey says and Henry brightens. 

Would he finally be back to normal? 

“How does it feel? To be a living, breathing toon?” Joey asks, and Henry wonders if he ever got the letters explaining what happened to him.

Henry attempts to speak, to tell him how awful it’s been, but the static coming from his mouth makes his throat burn and he winces, clutching at his nonexistent neck. 

Joey is surprised at the sound, blinking a bit rapidly before he gives a small frown. “I see. I thought perhaps the transformation could give you back your voice, but it seems not.” 

He seems almost...apologetic and Henry quietly shakes his head, making a gesture to say that it was fine. 

Being mute for nearly 30 years was something he accepted and was used to. It doesn’t bother him as much as it used to.

“I read your letters, truly I am sorry for what had happened,” Joey whispers. So he did get Henry’s letters? So many questions were tumbling around in Henry’s mind. Why was Joey acting so--so _ normal _ ? 

This isn’t exactly the situation to be acting like this, like the walls weren’t leaking with ink and demons weren’t stalking the halls. But Joey’s office  _ did _ remain untouched, which is odd. Sure, the window behind Joey is cracked and frosted with age, but other than that, the room was well-kept.

Not so much as a cobweb in sight, it looked just like the day he left, posters and all. 

Henry waves his hand quietly as if to say it’s fine, which it is. The past is in the past. He can’t change it if he wanted to. 

“Now, things would have been quite different had you stayed. Not that I hold it against you, dear friend.” Joey gives a small grin, his brown eyes glittering with some emotion that Henry can’t quite place. “Let bygones be bygones, I suppose! Old men shouldn’t keep grudges should they?” 

Henry smiles and nods in agreement, wishing he could communicate with his old friend, but he’s certain Joey doesn’t know a bit of sign. Surprisingly, there isn’t any paper or pen on the desk to write on either. 

“But, I will say things have changed; very much so,” the man before him states, a strange look in his eyes. “I’ve discovered a way to bring our dreams to reality, but not the final ingredient to make them truly  _ real _ . They come out malformed and...disgusting.” Joey spits as he rises from his chair, stepping over to Henry, circling him almost like a vulture waiting for its prey to take its final breath.

Henry feels his chest grow heavy, weight pressing down on his rib cage, or the toon equivalent to a rib cage. This doesn’t feel right. Something is  _ wrong _ . 

“I soon discovered the answer: a spark must be given, a small flicker of hopes and dreams to create something marvelous. It sounds silly, yes, but a creator like yourself you must know how that feels. To bring life on a page by a simple stroke of a pen.” Joey breathes in deeply, and Henry can feel the man’s fingers squeeze against the back of the chair, ink starting to drip down the side of Henry’s face as his anxiety grows stronger. 

Then Joey snaps, and in an instant Henry’s left hand slams onto the desk with such force it makes the toon give out a gasp. Black ooze traps his arm down onto the wood and Henry attempts to rip it free only to hear another snap and his other arm is caught on the armrest. The ooze is tight and sticky, making it very hard for Henry to move as it binds his wrists almost like handcuffs. 

“You always were a foolish man, Henry,” Joey states as Henry turns his head to look at the man, seeing his expression darken, one eye glowing just slightly. Joey’s right eye’s pupil was no longer round, but pie-cut, much like his own. Dark tendrils trace up and down the man’s face, twisting and squirming as if they’re alive. “I honestly didn’t expect you to come, but you did!”

“That was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made. Besides leaving in the first place.” He places a hand on the desk, leaning on it while watching Henry struggle under the vice grip of whatever the hell is containing him. “Tsk tsk, you’re not going anywhere. I control this place, for I am the Heart of this studio. I see all and know all. You think you entering my office was a fluke? No, I brought you here.” 

Joey grins like a madman. “Don’t worry, it’s not personal; actually, it is. You see, the machine has special rules and I can’t control it on my own. Since I was not the original creator, the two of us are in this together, but if you were thrown out of the picture...then I would gain full power over life and death itself.”

Henry gives a snarl-like noise, wincing from the pain as he does. Joey laughs, too loud for the small office. “I do like you better like this. I was just going to kill you, but that misshapen Angel put a slight wrench in my plans. Don’t worry, it’ll be over quite soon. Especially with this.”

The toon watches with fearful eyes as Joey turns the bottle that was resting on the table, showing off the label. Acetone. Ink remover. No, no no! Henry gives a shout as he struggles against the bonds while Joey laughs, flicking the halo above Henry's head.\

“Recognize this? Funny how a simple chemical can be so dangerous now. I wonder how it will feel on your—”\

The office door slams open as Bendy walks in, his body hunched and slouched. Joey stands at his full height, his face scrunched in a slight frown. “ **Joey...about—”**

“Must you always interrupt me? Did we not learn the last time? Hmm?” Joey asks and Bendy winces, his hands fidgeting as he steps into the office, the door shutting behind him. 

**“‘M sorry Joey. Henry—”**

“Henry is right here,” Joey states with gritted teeth, obviously annoyed with the Ink Demon and his sputtering. Bendy lifts himself slightly to see Henry trapped in the seat: eyes wide, ink starting to drip off his face, his sheer terror written all over him. Bendy smiles widely and looks to his creator. 

**“Ya did it! What’s the plan for this traitor?”** Bendy asks, slinking closer. Joey takes a step back, rolling his eyes. Henry looks at the bottle as Joey reaches for it. 

Joey quietly grabs a cup from a drawer and places it onto the table, pouring a bit of the clear liquid into the glass. Bendy tilts his head, obviously not sure what the liquid was or what was he going to do with it.  **“You thirsty or somethin’?”**

“No, you idiot,” Joey snaps and Bendy flinches at the sudden change of volume. “I’m going to do this.” And with a simple motion, he pours the acetone onto Henry’s squirming hand.

Once the liquid touches Henry, it burns; it feels like hot acid is pouring over his skin. He can feel his hand boiling as the ink bubbles, and sputters, splattering like a popped balloon against the wooden desktop. Henry lifts his chin clenching his face as he tries to keep himself from screaming.

Oh god, it  _ hurts _ . 

It hurts so badly. 

Bendy takes a step back from Joey as he watches Henry writhe in agony; the liquid does its job, melting down to the desktop until there’s no longer a fingerless gloved hand, but a bit of arm with a puddle of black bubbling ink. 

“Tell me, Henry, does it hurt? I’d imagine it’s like pouring bleach onto yourself, except this reaction is instantaneous.” Joey is fascinated by the reaction of the acetone on a living toon. It was obviously quite painful. 

Henry glares at the man with a pure look of malice as the toon breathes heavily. The pain is still there, but now it’s a steady burning, unlike the red-hot iron of pain it was moments ago. 

“Hmm. Well, no matter, we need to be rid of all of you after all. I’d imagine this will be quite a slow process. Do you think you can handle this?” Joey asks as he dips the cup once more, acetone falling back out and hitting onto Henry’s arm now. 

This time Henry screams, and it sounds absolutely garbled but still clearly pained. It hurts even more to speak, so the pain is doubled as Henry cries out. Hot, wet, inky tears run down his face as he watches his arm melt into a puddle much like his hand did. Ink is splattering onto the floor; the acetone melted most of his arm, and now there’s just a steady flow of ink just sputtering out of what once was his hand and arm. Henry’s breathing stutters as he tries to refrain from crying out in pain again.

“ **Joey...don’t you think this is a bit...much?”** Bendy asks. He watches Henry lean against the chair he’s strapped to, his eyes clenched shut as he tries to handle the pain. It isn't a pretty sight, and Bendy has to look away, guilt beginning to gnaw at him. Does Bendy really want this? Sure, he wanted Henry to suffer…but not like  _ this _ .

Joey turns to Bendy, his head tilted, pausing from his little torture session. “Isn’t this what you want? After all he has said? After all he has  _ done? _ He left us! He left  _ you _ .” Joey’s words cut through Bendy like a knife. Henry did leave, and he did say such awful things about Bendy and the other toons. 

But does he deserve  _ this?  _

Henry turns his head to look at Bendy, his left eye completely blacked out from the ink spilling off of his head. He’s falling apart. The more acetone Joey spills, the more he fades away, washing away with the melting ink. When he’s entirely melted away, will he truly die? 

God, he doesn’t want to think about it.\

Henry doesn’t know what lies Bendy was told about him; hell, Henry didn’t even know Bendy existed until he came into this studio. Didn’t know he was actually  _ real.  _

**“But..”** Bendy attempts to speak only to be silenced by Joey, who holds the bottle tighter, his eyes narrowed dangerously.  **“Sorry** …” 

Joey doesn’t say anything and continues to pour more acetone onto Henry’s arm, wanting to make sure there’s nothing left before he moves to the other one. 

Henry screams and cries from the burning feeling traveling up whole body. He’s used to pain, but not like this.  _ Never _ like this. Ink trickles out of his mouth, spilled by the use of his damaged vocal cords. He can only sit here and watch his body melt away before his eyes. His vision is already obscured by the ink, and no doubt he’ll soon be just another puddle of ink. 

This is it. This is how he’s going to die. His last moments will be spent strapped in a chair, watching his friend, his dear old  _ friend  _ melting him away into nothing. Some life this turned out to be. 

He must have been screaming for quite some time before Bendy shouts,  **“STOP IT!** ” Ink sprawls out like frost traveling around the windows and floor at his words. 

Joey turns quickly, obviously not too happy about Bendy interrupting. For Henry it means no more acetone, at least for the time being, and he can finally breathe again. Everything hurts, aches, and burns. He’s starting to fade in and out of consciousness; never a good sign. 

“Stop? You want me to stop? Why?” Joey asks, and Bendy hesitates for a moment, obviously not wishing to anger Joey in anyway. 

**“C-Cause! You’re hurting him and...and this is not what we talked about!”** Bendy stammers moving closer to Henry, watching the toon’s chest rise and fall slowly, sometimes shuddering with each breath. 

Joey raises a brow at the Ink Demon, “Don’t you want revenge? Don’t you want to get even and show him that toons aren’t what he said they were? Don’t you wish to see him suffer for all the pain he’s caused?!” Joey is just about shouting. Bendy is a good two or three feet taller than the man, yet the Ink Demon is cowering in fear. 

Just what did Joey fill Bendy’s head with? Why make Henry the bad guy when obviously the one who fit the bill was the man screaming at him? 

**“I do! But...but not like this. There’s...gotta be another way!”** Bendy is pleading with Joey, but the man doesn’t listen, only scoffing at him before turning back to his work. 

After a moment of silence, Bendy steps behind Henry’s chair and pulls it away, snapping the bonds with a simple tug. Joey stands there in surprise as Bendy glares at the man, even more ink dripping down his face than usual. 

“ **I said stop.”** There’s strength in his voice, but it’s obviously covered by the fear of Joey’s anger.  **“No more. Please, Joey.”**

“Get. Out. Of. The. Way,” Joey snarls as he holds the bottle tightly in his hand, stepping towards the two. 

Henry is just about to pass out from all the pain, but gives a faint surprised noise when Bendy scoops him up into his skeletal arms, holding him close to his ink rib cage. 

“You can’t escape me. You know this. There’s nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.” Joey steps closer to Bendy, and Bendy takes a step back, pressing Henry closer to himself. 

**“I ain’t followin’ you anymore! I can’t watch you do this!”** Bendy turns and rushes out of the office, creating a ink portal as Joey laughs loudly, shouting at him that he can’t escape this place. 

That doesn’t matter, what matters is getting Henry out of here. He seems to be barely hanging on by a thread. His eyes are clenched shut in pain, twitching every once in a while. Ink still drips from the arm that got soaked by the liquid, spattering audibly against the floor until Bendy enters the portal and there is no more floor.

 

...

 

The portal leads them to an empty room. There’s no point to running. Joey knows this place like the back of his hand, he ran this place and no one could ever escape under his watch. 

Bendy glances around to find a place to put Henry down. The man’s ragged breathing is making his heart clench. What was he doing? Disobeying Joey? This is the  _ traitor _ , the one who called him disgusting and left them all to rot. 

So why is he protecting the man who he hated so much? 

There’s a box that’s free of ink and dust, long enough for Henry to lie down on. With gentle hands, as if holding a glass doll, the Ink Demon places Henry down, watching the ink from Henry’s injured arm splatter onto the floor.

Henry doesn’t seem to react to what’s going on, just lays there with half-lidded eyes, his uninjured arm reaching over to touch the missing one. His breathing is uneven and Bendy doesn’t know what to do about it. 

**“You can’t die on me, old man, I got things I wanna say,”** Bendy states with a small growl, frustrated at this whole situation. He needs to find some ink; ink always helped him before, so it should work for Henry. 

He hopes. 

Bendy begins rummaging through the room, which seems to be a storage room of sorts. A bunch of broken things, ruined dolls and botched cut-outs were placed all around the room. It’s quiet for the most part, except for the intermittent dripping of ink coming from Henry’s arm. That worries Bendy, he needs to get Henry back on-model before he can properly talk to the turned toon. 

**“Damn it, the hell...where is all the ink?!”** He knows there are untouched inkwells scattered across the place, considering that this was an animation studio. Bendy gives out a growl of frustration as Henry starts to cough, ink sprinkling out of his mouth, dribbling off his chin. Not good. 

Bendy stops when he hears the rattling of the doorknob, and his stance goes defensive, long limbs crouching low. His clawed hand flexes for a moment, ready to strike as the door opens, expecting one of Joey’s henchmen. 

The door creaks open and in steps a female figure lit by a faint glow coming from what looks like a headband, but in reality is part of a halo. She sports a pair of small horns with broken tips and a tight ponytail; her arms are covered in black ink and her outfit is similarly splattered with it. She wields a large machete of sorts, and looks ready to use it. 

Behind her is a larger character, a Boris with a mechanical hand, holding a length of pipe in his other. They both seem determined as the Boris shuts the door. The angel’s eyes travel from the Ink Demon to Henry, eyes widening slightly as she sees the state of the injured toon. 

**“What do you want? Here to finish the job?”** Bendy snarls, his body jerking to the side to protect Henry. 

The angel shakes her head, placing her weapon into her belt to show she isn’t here for a fight. The Boris does the same, placing his pipe into the pocket of his overalls. 

“I can help,” she says gently, reaching into the small pouch on the side of her belt, pulling out an inkwell that seemed to be untouched. Bendy freezes for a moment, looking at the two with suspicion. “We both know why we’re here: to help  _ him _ . There’s no point in fighting.” 

Bendy is still unsure. The angel, Allison, shut off the machine before, and for all he knows she might do it again. Joey was very displeased with Bendy after that. But Bendy doesn’t want Henry to melt into a puddle; would a turned toon like Henry ever be able to come back from that?

Finally, Bendy makes a noise of distrust but backs off, his body hunched slightly as he watches Allison quietly step to the unconscious toon. Gently, she move, him to be sitting upright. Henry gives a small groan but doesn’t fight against being moved. She uncorks the bottle and coaxes the toon to drink it. 

Henry does, giving a sour face but he swallows it like water. When the bottle is finished, she gently lays him back down and stands looking to the Ink Demon. 

“Now you know why I shut off the machine,” she tells him. If the Ink Machine was shut down, none of them could reform if they went back to the ink. That meant they would be dead for good. At least, that was what Joey said. 

Bendy says nothing, glancing to Henry. Worry is hitting him like a ton of rocks. Why does he care so  _ much _ ? He hated Henry, often wished to see him dead. But...seeing the agony on his face as his lifeforce was just…melting away had been terrifying. He couldn’t stand to watch it. 

_ Why? _

“He’s going to be fine. He’s lucky you got him out in time.” Allison can tell he’s worried and Bendy huffs, shaking his head. He crosses his gangly arms and begins pacing back and forth. 

**“It doesn’t make sense, why would Joey** **_do_ ** **something like that?! I thought we were gonna teach him a lesson...but not like that,”** Bendy stammers and Allison frowns. The Boris rolls his eyes just slightly. 

“You really are an idiot,” the Boris states. “You really think  _ he  _ would just let Henry go with a slap on the wrist? No. He planned to  _ kill _ him and you’re just--”

“ **SHUT UP! YOU KNOW NOTHING!”** Bendy shouts, looming over the Boris, who stood his ground. His mechanical hand clenched, preparing for the fight it looked like Bendy was about to start. 

Allison quickly moves between them, her yellow eyes bright, her halo glowing slightly. “Enough! This isn’t the time to argue, we have bigger things to worry about. Henry’s condition is the first priority, Tom,” she scolds the Boris, and Tom rubs his shoulder, still glaring at Bendy. 

The angel turns to glare at Bendy, who is at equal fault. “And you! You’ve done enough damage as it is, either leave or calm down.” 

Bendy huffs, turning away from the other two and saying nothing. They know nothing about Joey. Joey was just trying to help. To make this place better. It wasn’t his fault that every time he tried, it would fail because Henry was still here. If they just would cooperate… The seed of doubt was starting to bloom in him. If Joey was truly just trying to help...why did he try to kill Henry point blank?

 

...

 

The tension in the room is too thick to cut; if you were to try, the knife would just bounce off. They had all just been standing there for who knows how long waiting for Henry to wake up, to get better. 

A cough breaks through the silence, sending all three to look at Henry. His arm is starting to form back, and his ink has stopped spilling out on the floor. Pie-cut eyes slowly open, hazy and disoriented. 

Henry groans, hoisting himself up with his uninjured arm, halo bobbing up and down slightly with the movement. He feels awful, burning all over. He’d only felt this much pain during the war. The images of burned bodies hit his mind as he sat up, leaning against the wall, not noticing the people in the room. 

But clawed hands grabbed his shoulders, instantly pulling him to reality, Bendy is face-to-face with him, his large body towering over Henry, hands grabbing at the base of Henry’s neck as shouts can be heard behind him. 

**“Up an’ attem Henry! Time for you to explain yourself!”** Bendy’s voice is distorted with anger, and as he squeezes Henry’s head, Henry is afraid his toon body will just let his head pop off. 

“Bendy!” a feminine voice shouted as gloved hands try to grab him, but Bendy isn’t budging. He’s angry and Henry can’t say anything to calm him down. 

“ **Come on, old pal! Talk! SAY SOMETHING! ANYTHING!”** His voice is getting desperate, as if trying to justify why Joey did what he did. Henry tries to speak, but nothing but static comes out. The sound is garbled and muffled under Bendy’s hands. 

“Bendy! He’s mute! He can’t speak even if he wants to! Don’t you see that!” the woman comes to view, hands on Bendy. She looks almost like a clone of Alice, yet not as damaged. Allison, then? 

Bendy pauses at the realization, his grip slacking and Henry coughs softly. He looks up at Bendy seeing the turmoil on his face. He didn’t know. Henry couldn’t just outright tell him. His body is so weak that when Bendy lets go, he slumps over. 

At least his arm is back, despite being almost numb from his fingertips to his elbow. Or, elbow area. The anatomy of a toon was still a bit of a grey area, he isn’t sure if he even has bones, or organs for that matter. 

**“Mute?”** Bendy whispers softly, as Tom and Allison move closer to the weak Henry who is still gripping his once-melted arm. The color is starting to come back to his face, no more excess ink dripping off him. Completely and utterly on-model.

“You sign, don’t you?” Allison asks, and Henry turns his gaze to her. He never met the recent voice actress for Alice, and his heart aches that she was pulled in this mess too. Here was another Boris, too. He assumes this one used to be one of the staff as well, but he can’t tell who. 

Henry signs a weak  _ yes _ , and Allison brightens, signing back that she knows ASL. What a relief. 

**“What are you doing?”** Bendy asks, curious to what the angels were doing with their hands. Allison smiles, turning to the Ink Demon. 

“Henry is mute, but that doesn’t mean he can’t communicate with us. Luckily, I know ASL. My mother is deaf so I’m very well-versed in it.” Catching Bendy’s confused tilt of his head, she explains more. “It’s like speaking but with hands, deaf and mute people use it like we use English.” 

She turns to Henry asking if he was okay, and Henry gave a small weak sign that he was fine, just a bit achy. Allison looks relieved. “So far, so good.”

Henry looks at Bendy, seeing the Ink Demon completely confused with himself. His world had been turned upside down, finding out Joey’s true motives. He assumes the Ink Demon looked up to Joey, and by the way he was treated, it wasn’t a good relationship. Flicking his eyes away he glances down at his fingers, the circle in the palm of his gloves. He has to make things right.

Glancing back up at the Ink Demon, he swallows and tries to speak, just for Bendy. It would hurt, and probably not even sound like words, but he would do it. To gain Bendy’s trust. “Be…” The sound that came out of his mouth sounds like someone speaking through a radio that kept cutting out. His throat burns from the use, but he pushes through as Bendy looked at him. The demon’s face is covered in ink, but that doesn’t cover the surprise. 

“Henry you shouldn’t speak, you could--” Henry stops her, signing for her to let him do this. Allison catches on and goes quiet, glancing at the Boris with drawn lips. 

Henry looks back at Bendy, determination in his heart. “M...sor..” He winces feeling ink dribbling down his chin and quickly rubs it away, Bendy stepping closer to him. 

**“H..Henry you don’t gotta..”** Bendy stammers, unsure what to do. He moves closer to Henry, crouching down to get to his level. 

The toon shakes his head firmly. No, he is going to do this. He needs to do this. Bendy needs to know, to trust him. The lies that Joey planted in him are deeply rooted in, and Henry is going to rip them all out carefully. Henry places a gentle hand on Bendy’s inky face and, surprisingly, the Ink Demon doesn’t flinch. “S..sorry,” he finally chokes out and Bendy gives out a shuddering noise. 

As if..as if he was crying. 

Henry wipes away the ink covering the Ink Demon’s face, revealing pie-cut eyes spilling over with large ink tears. The lanky form starts to shiver and Bendy lets out a soft cry, leaning into Henry’s touch.  **“No...I’m sorry. ‘M so sorry. I didn’t want...I didn’t want this to happen..”** Bendy whispers and Henry gives a small hum in response. 

They were both at fault here. Bendy wraps his large body around Henry’s small one, large arms gripping him tightly. Henry pats his boney back pausing when seeing the ink starting to drip off Bendy’s body in large clumps. As the ink hit the floor with loud splats, the Ink Demon was shrinking slowly in Henry’s embrace. 

Soon, to Henry’s surprise, the small demon was in his arms, sobbing loudly. The real dancing demon, the one that was meant for mischief and fun, not for the nightmares of the studio. Henry leans into the embrace even more, as Bendy nuzzles against his chest sobbing out apology after apology. 

“Well...I’ll be damned,” the Boris speaks and Henry immediately recognizes his voice as Thomas Connor. He remembers Thomas dealt with the ink machine along with Wally on one of his audiotapes. “Glad to have ya back, Henry,” Tom grins, crossing his arms, and then Allison smiles as well. 

Bendy is still clutching onto Henry for dear life, the poor thing shaking and shuddering but no longer crying big fat inky tears. Henry rubs the space between his horns, wishing that Bendy did not have to deal with all this. He was supposed to make people laugh, not be sent to kill and murder others. It just wasn’t in his nature. No wonder he had looked so off-model.

Allison sits on a dusty chair, her machete placed on a box nearby, her face deadly serious. “Now...we need to come up with a plan…” she says.

Henry nods. Now is the time to take back this studio, to make things  _ right. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope guys loved this chapter as much as I did, it was really REALLY fun to write. Thanks so much for the views and the comments. They really inspire me to write more.
> 
> Thanks again Avablook for beta reading


	6. Drag the Dark into the Dawn

Allison begins to pace around the room, reminding Henry a bit of his boot camp days. She has a look of determination, a hand on her chin as Henry is resting on the box and Tom is leaning against the wall.

Bendy is asleep, and Henry doesn’t blame him. All those emotions and new revelations would tire anyone out. His little form is now resting on Henry’s lap, small Z’s leaving him as he dozes off. 

“Okay, so we definitely need to turn the machine back off,” Allison states as she turns to Henry and Boris. Henry hunches his shoulders a bit, feeling sheepish. If he had known what the Ink Machine actually did, then he would have never touched the damn thing. 

Allison catches his eye, a soft smile on her lips. “Not to worry, it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know any better.” 

Henry still gives a sigh, feeling awfully dumb for turning the machine on. 

“Then what? We definitely can’t go to the machine and turn it back off. You know how hard it was the first time. He’ll definitely amp up the security for sure,” Tom interjects, clenching and unclenching his mechanical arm. 

Did he lose it when they first turned off the machine? 

Allison nods to Tom, sitting down on the chair once more. “Exactly. So we need backup.” 

_ Backup?  _ Henry signs to Allison with a clueless look. What backup? Everyone here was absolutely crazy! 

“That’s where you come in,” Allison says with a smirk. “You’ve got a special ability, and I think it can bring some sense into some of the people here. I saw what you did to Sammy.” 

Right! When he swiped at Sammy while trying to escape him, he saw a bit of the man who once was. Can he pull Sammy out of the ink? Is that even possible?

_ Do you think I can do something like that?  _ he asks, and Allison tilts her head. She looks as if she wants it to be true, and Henry does too. He wants to pull every one of them away from Joey’s inky grasp. From his little monologue Henry understood that Joey was experimenting with the staff, trying to make toons out of humans.

But they weren’t up to his standards, and are now forced to wander the halls for eternity, never exactly able to die because of the Ink Machine. 

God, how awful. 

“We have to try. It’s our only hope,” Allison whispers. 

Hope. What a feeling to have. Finally a small moment where he can firmly grasp it, and hold it tightly. 

Tom lifts himself off the doorway, his arms crossed. “So where do we start? Sammy? Norman? Susie?”

Allison lifts her knee to her chin as she thinks, her yellow eyes narrowing a bit. “Whoever is closest. Bendy should know where Norman is; he took him away after all.” 

Norman...Norman Polk? God, not him too.  _ I’m so sorry. _ Henry signs with a small whimper and Allison shakes her head quickly. 

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.  _ He  _ did this to us. And now he’s gonna reap what he sows. Angels don’t like liars,” Allison states with a small growl, standing and grabbing her machete. 

“Plus, did you really think he would be able to do this? Don’t punish yourself for not being able to see into the future, Henry,” Tom adds, and Henry looks to the Boris. He barely talked to Tom. The man was a quiet one, a bit of a sarcastic joker when he was around Wally, but a good man. 

They were all good people.

How could Joey  _ do _ something like this? To all these people? To his  _ friends _ ? To innocents? 

Joey was never the type to hurt someone, he was always so work-oriented, wanting to make his dreams a reality and too busy for anything else. So why was he doing this? Had he, too, fallen into the deep pit of ink and lost himself? 

Or was that just his personality, one he had been hiding all this time? 

Henry frowns at the thought, Joey always  _ was _ a charmer, able to talk his way out of anything. Was that just a mask to hide his true feelings? 

He doesn’t know what to think anymore, considering that he almost  _ died  _ to the hands of his best friend. Or the toon equivalent of dying. Henry had been sent to the Ink once, he didn’t plan on doing it again. 

“Okay, so at least we have some idea of what to do. We need to be careful, Joey no doubt will be on high guard and send all the goons he can to get us,” Allison states, gripping her machete and twirling it a bit. “So it’s best to prepare yourself for a fight.” 

Tom cracks his knuckles, which is a bit odd to see Boris do, since Boris really wasn’t the one to fight. “Don’t worry; if anything happens, we’ve got your back.” 

Henry smiles at that. It’s nice to finally have some allies here, to have people to rely on and to not be in constant danger. 

“Let’s get going, shall we?” Allison asks. Henry scoops the sleeping Bendy into his arms, the little toon instantly placing his head onto Henry’s shoulder and snuggling into Henry’s embrace. 

Henry nods and the other two smile.  _ Let’s go and kick some ass,  _ he signs one-handed around Bendy’s sleeping form. Allison laughs, her hand over her mouth, no doubt not expecting Henry to curse. 

“We should wake him up,” Allison gestures to the sleeping Bendy. “We need to know where Norman is, and maybe Sammy. Susie is probably still in her little hideout. You might be able to go in there and convince her to come out.” Henry nods. She’s right; if anyone was to know Sammy and Norman’s locations, it would be Bendy. 

After all, Sammy did say he was brought back because of Bendy, and Henry watched Bendy rip Norman to shreds before dragging his body away into the portal.

Henry gently pats the small demon’s back, shaking him slightly until Bendy tries to swat him away, his tail curling around Henry’s arm. Henry rolls his eyes and lightly paps Bendy’s face.

With a groan, Bendy’s pie-cut eyes open and look up to Henry, still half-asleep. “What happen?” Bendy slurs. 

“Time to get up,” Tom states, looking down at the demon. “We gotta fix this mess that you and your—ouch!” Tom recoils back as Allison swiftly stomps onto Tom’s foot, giving the Boris a large glare. 

“What he’s saying is, we need to stop Joey. He’s gone too far and we need your help,” Allison says, and Bendy clenches his gloved fists against Henry’s vest. 

He looked conflicted, and frustrated. Henry tilts his head in question and Bendy huffs, slipping off of Henry and planting his feet onto the ground. 

“It wasn’t supposed to be like that. He wasn’t...I didn’t mean..” Bendy stammers, wringing his hands together. Allison crouches down, placing a small hand in the space between his horns while Henry rubs the small toon’s back. 

“It’s fine. You can make it up to us, to Henry, by helping us. Can you do that?” Allison asks, her voice is soft, kind as if speaking to a child, but not condescending like Joey’s tone had been. 

Bendy pauses, looking to Allison, then to Henry, and he nods. “Yeah. I can. I can do that. What do we need to do?”

“First, we need to strengthen our ranks, we need to find people to help us. Henry can help with their minds, at least we hope,” Allison explains and Bendy nods, his head tilted a bit.

“Ya mean like Sammy and Norman and the others?” he questions and the two nod. Bendy toes the floor, his hands behind his back. “Both are back in the ink, but I think I could get them out. I dunno.” 

Henry looks over to Bendy, who seems a bit ashamed. It seems he’s starting to understand what he did was wrong. Bendy was like a child, a child that was misled by an awful, awful man. If Henry wasn’t in this condition, Joey would have gotten a good beat down, and a couple harsh words to his name. Not that he could say them, but signing them had the same feeling. 

“Well, we won’t know until we try,” Tom states and Allison hums in agreement. She twirls her machete and turns to the door.

Tom is the first one to leave; since he’s the tallest and strongest, it’s best for him to lead the way. Allison trails behind Henry, her eyes moving swiftly, calculating. Henry travels in between the two, with Bendy close behind. He can feel gloved hands touching at his vest every so often. Is Bendy concerned for him? 

To be honest, he feels fine. There’s a slight tingle to his body, but it isn’t the searing pain like before. Just the feeling as if his foot was asleep. Toon bodies are an enigma. How he even survived that is beyond him. 

He’s grateful for Bendy, he no doubt would have melted into an inky puddle if Bendy hadn’t saved him. 

Outside of the room, the halls seem darker than usual. The only light source is the faint glow of Allison’s and Henry’s halos. Henry reaches up to grab the metal ring around his head and holds it close, as if it’s a candle to light the way.

The constant sound of ink is driving Henry insane. It never ends, this continuing sound of ink plopping onto the floor. It’s up to his knees, and he wades through the liquid as Tom lets Allison, whose halo sheds at least some light, lead the way. Bendy, the shortest of them, is nearly drowning in the ink. 

“There’s never been this much ink! And I can’t see a thing!” Bendy whines as he nearly trips over himself, ink splattering everywhere.

Henry reaches over and picks the demon up, letting him ride piggyback. He’d rather Bendy stay close and not fall into the ink. That’s the last thing he wants.

“I have a feeling it’s because of Joey,” Allison comments as she pushes a box away with her foot. 

“Geez, you really pissed him off,” Tom adds and Henry gives a small grumble in response. 

If Joey wants to throw a tantrum and make this a living hell, so be it. Henry isn’t going to let that stop him. He needs to take Joey down. There was no reasoning with him, so he needs to be stopped. No more suffering. No more ink. Nothing. 

Henry is pulled from his thoughts when he slams into Allison, who stops suddenly. She grips her machete even harder and Tom steps closer to them. 

“What is it?” Tom asks, leaning closer to Henry’s glowing light, his ears lifted up and twitching a bit, trying to pinpoint a sound.

The only thing Henry can hear is the dripping of ink, and the liquid sloshing against his knees. He feels Bendy grip his shoulder a bit, pressing his chin closer to the angel toon. 

Henry can feel his heart starting to pick up; the silence is killing him. He should have tried to create a weapon before he left. He supposes his halo will do, and his grip on it tightens. 

Then he hears it: a loud gurgling noise as a faint figure rises from the ink. Two, then three, then a dozen begin to lift themselves from the ink. Searchers? No...these masses of ink had hardened spikes along their bodies, eyes glowing a deep red. 

Friends of Joey’s?

“Gatherers,” Allison growls as she moved to a fighting stance. “Joey’s little group of henchmen, they’re like searchers but much more aggressive.” 

Tom cracks his knuckles and rolls his shoulders, brandishing the length of pipe he’s been carrying. “Easy. We can take them.” 

The Gatherers growl loudly, and the first to emerge launches itself at Allison, clawed hands moving to swipe at the angel. 

With a swift movement she easily dodges the thing, using her machete to slice at the Gatherer. A clean cut breaks through the inky body, and with a splat the thing pops like a balloon. Ink splutters and Allison then begins to hack and slice at the others. 

Tom follows suit, moving his large body with quick grace. Using his fist and pipe, he easily bludgeons the Gatherers into pulps of ink.

Henry keeps a tight grip on Bendy as he dodges swipes of claws and spikes being thrown at him. They seem more focused on Henry then the others, but Henry is fast and small, able to weave his way through their attacks despite having a small demon on his back.

Bendy is giving instructions to move, along with his own commentary. “Haha, take that ya bum!” Bendy shouts as Henry flings his halo into a nearby Gatherer, hitting it right in the head and going straight through. The Gatherer falls into a sludgy puddle, but two more quickly take its place. 

“Damn it, there’s too many!” Tom shouts as he pushes one of the Gatherers off himself and then slams his pipe into it until it disappears back into the murky ink. 

“We have this! Just keep fighting!” Allison shouts, but even she is being pushed back by the sheer number of Gatherers. 

They just keep appearing out of nowhere. 

Maybe there’s a way to drain the ink in the room? Was the ink how they keep spawning? Henry glances around as he jumps onto a crate to get a better view. He ducks at a barrage of spikes get thrown at him. Damn it, he can’t see a thing!

The crate wobbles as one of the Gatherers shakes at it, attempting to get Henry down. Henry kicks at it, but the thing grabs his leg. 

“Hey, back off!” Bendy shouts, whipping his tail at the Gatherer. Henry is able to shake it off, but he nearly loses his balance in the process. 

Jumping away from the crate, he finds himself backed into a corner, along with Allison and Tom. They look exhausted from all the fighting, and Henry is too. 

No, this can’t be it! They can’t lose here! 

Henry shuts his eyes as the Gatherers inch closer, expecting death to come.

But it doesn’t. Instead, there’s a loud banging noise, and suddenly the room is lit up as bullets begin to rip through the air, hitting every single Gatherer with ease. 

The inky beings shudder and groan, falling back to the ink, and the liquid seeps back into the floor, ridding the room of the substance.

Henry looks up to find their savior and is completely surprised.

Their savior is silhouetted in the door, hard to make out, but he can hear the click of heels against wood, and the light of  _ something _ illuminates the person. 

“Hello, boys,” a silky voice croons, and Henry knows that voice from anywhere. 

The person standing before them is Alice. Her dress is ripped and tattered, hair cut short from what looks like a blade. A tommy gun rests on her hip as the other hand rests by her side. Her face doesn’t drip, nor can Henry see the inside of her mouth. Her halo is still broken, but it shines brighter than ever. 

“Don’t you know it’s rude to leave a lady out of the fun?” she asks, and Allison lifts herself up, suspicious of Alice. Alice sees it right away and gives a huff. “Please, I won’t hurt you, I’m stable.” 

“Susie?” Allison asks, and Alice shakes her head immediately.

“It’s best to call me Alice. Keeps things from getting...muddled,” Alice replies as she wipes away a bit of drip from her eye, which doesn’t look like a gaping hole in her face. Instead, it looks as if her entire eye is black with a bit of ink dripping every now and then. 

Alice turns to Henry, giving a small smirk, “I don’t like it when people damage my things. So I want in. It’s time I paid my respects to the insect that did this to me,” she spits, and Allison smiles widely.

_ Welcome to the club,  _ Henry signs with a faint chuckle and Alice hums softly. 

“He says welcome to the team. And thank you, for saving us,” Allison says as she steps closer to Alice. Alice waves her away with a laugh. 

“Please, it’s what Angels do, right? We are the good guys, after all. No offense, Bendy.” 

Bendy makes a noise of disapproval, and Henry can feel the demon’s little tail beating at his leg. The toon crawls off Henry, sticking his tongue out at the angel before him. 

“Right, as much as I love touching reunions I’d rather not be stayin’ here and have those suckers come back,” Tom states, and Allison nods in agreement. 

Allison turns to look at Bendy. 

“Do you remember the last time you’ve seen Sammy?” she asks. He was the most recent one to fall back to the ink, so by that logic he might be easier to find and obtain. 

Bendy rubs his chin, tapping his foot a bit. “Right out of the staff room, when Henry escaped...I sorta…” Bendy winces, his shoulders hunched, tail tucked close to his feet as if he was expecting to be scolded, or perhaps worse. 

“We need to work on that anger issue,” Allison says, she seems very observant on body language. Not once has her voice risen or got louder. It’s always the same tone, never malicious or harmful. She treads lightly around Bendy, much like a therapist. Henry’s impressed. “There’s no fixing what has been done, but we can learn from our mistakes. Okay?”

Henry can see the surprise on the little demon’s face. He seems surprised that Allison didn’t yell and shout at him. Henry decides to share his own opinion, signing,  _ We aren’t like Joey. _

Bendy sees the taller toon using his hands, but he of course can’t understand, so Allison translates. “That’s right. Bendy, we aren’t Joey. We won’t do what he did to you. You’re just as much as a victim as we are.” 

Tom snorts at that, but Allison quickly elbows the Boris and Tom coughs lightly, not looking at the toon. 

“As much as I love a good heartwarming chat, let’s find Sammy,” Alice states, and Henry nods. They’re starting to get numbers, and this could be it. Maybe they all could fight Joey and take back the studio. Hopefully find a way to change everyone back, and fix what had been wronged. 

They travel out of the large room, more confident than ever. Bendy is surprisingly quiet, as well as everyone else. Henry used to hate silence. When first discovering he was mute, it was hard to function. He was dying slowly, at least that’s what it felt like. If Linda hadn’t been there, Henry didn’t know what he would have done. 

She was his everything, his rock, and he missed her terribly. It only was a year since she had died, and he was still mourning her. He missed her smile, her gentle laugh and brave personality. 

He stops himself from diving deeper into the abyss of his mind. He shouldn’t be thinking about her. It would just make things worse. He takes a deep breath, glancing at his companions, relieved that no one saw that small moment of weakness. He shouldn’t be crying right now. Damn these toon emotions. It was so hard to keep them bottled up when toons wore their emotions on their sleeves. 

They had to, since they were animated to do so. 

“He should be...around here..” Bendy breaks through the silence and leaves Henry’s side, turning a corner. The hall is once again covered in ink, but it’s not constantly dripping down, just flooded, not a single leak in sight. “I dunno if I can…” Bendy looks at himself and Henry makes the connection: he was on model now, there may be a chance he couldn’t do the things he did before while in this form. 

“Then...someone’s gotta go in the ink and get him,” Tom whispers, and everyone looks a bit hesitant. It seemed everyone had ventured through the ink once, and did not want to experience it again. 

Alice shakes her head quickly, her eye starting to leak ink, dripping down her face. “Not me, I don’t...I definitely won’t be able to keep myself together if I go back in  _ there _ .” She grips her arms tightly, her shoulders hunched the look of terror clear on her face. 

“I’ll do it, then,” Allison states, her voice wavering slightly. “I can--”

Henry stops her, stepping in front of them, not letting them step into the ink. He puts his hands up with a determined look.  _ I’ll do it, _ he signs firmly. He needs to feel useful; these four have been through a lot, and he isn’t about to let them go through this. 

It shouldn’t be too bad, right?

Allison looks taken aback, her eyes wide, “What? No, Henry you can’t--”

“What’s he saying?” Tom asks, and Allison looks at Henry, seeing the complete look of determination across the toons face. 

“He wants to go in,” Allison whispers and Henry nods firmly. “That’s too dangerous, you’re not like us, we don’t know what would happen…”

_ We can take that risk, _ he signs taking in a deep breath, _ I’m tired of running, let me do this. Please.  _

Allison stands there with a look, chewing on her lower lip as she thinks. “Alright. But if you don’t come out in three minutes, we are diving in to get you. Deal?” She holds her hand out for the toon to take. Henry reaches up and shakes it, signing  _ deal. _

“Don’t go dyin’ on us, old man,” Bendy comments, but Henry can tell he’s worried; his tail is swishing back and forth as he wrings his hands. 

Henry gives a half smile and a thumbs up before turning to the flooded room. SImple, dive into the ink and find Sammy. That should be easy. He hopes. Swallowing thickly he walks deeper into the ink, feeling it lick at his feet, then his knees, and then finally to his chest. With a deep breath, he dives into the murky liquid. 

Surprisingly, he can see quite well; it’s like diving into the ocean. Static fills his ears, and as he swims deeper into the dark he can hear the whispers grow louder and louder. 

_ Help me, oh god, help me _

_ Please, I just want to leave, I’m so sorry.  _

_ Help us… _

The barrage of noises crescendos as he attempts to sort them all out. It’s layer on layer of voices all screaming in his ears. He needs to look for Sammy. His voice was easy to pick out in the studio, so it shouldn’t be so hard to pinpoint him here. 

_ Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned… _

There! Stupid religious crap had to be Sammy. He turns his head and swims closer to the voice. 

_ You...you are so familiar...what is this sensation? _

Sammy’s voice grows louder and Henry spots the glowing inky heart in the sea of ink. He reaches for it, cupping it in his hands. The heart throbs softly, a faint glow illuminating around it, much like his own halo. Henry holds it close to his chest.  **_Don’t worry Sammy, I got you_ ** , he thinks, quietly determined to help his friend out. 

He wishes that Sammy wasn’t the maniac he is now, he wishes he could push away the ink and bring Sammy back. The Sammy he knew, the one who would slightly chuckle at Wally’s antics but then throw on a straight face if he would be caught smiling, god forbid. 

Suddenly the heart jerks beneath his fingers, and he feels it tremble. It pulls and stretches as Henry holds it tightly until he feels hands grab his own. Henry immediately grips them as hard as he can and heads to the surface. 

He coughs loudly as he breaks through the surface of the ink, ignoring the slight twinge of pain. Allison wades into the ink and helps him out, Henry still holding onto the hand. 

What comes out of the inky surface is a blob of ink. They pull the inky mass to the edge of the ink pool, watching it tremble and fall over. Henry watches with his own two eyes as the ink began to drip away, falling with large splats, much like Bendy when he went back to his smaller form.

White-blond hair pokes out of the ink, and then finally a face lifts away from the globs of liquid, panting and coughing out the dark substance. It’s Sammy, at least...but not the human Sammy. 

Sammy Lawrence is now a full-blooded toon, much like Henry himself. His hair is styled like before, but two curled horns much akin to a ram’s, or a sheep’s, rest on the sides of his head. He wears a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing off black arms and white gloves. Suspenders hold his pants, and an arrow-shaped tail whips around harshly behind him. 

Everyone stands there gobsmacked;  _ that _ is not what anyone expected. Sammy had turned into a devil-sheep-toon. Sammy groans, lifting himself up, still coughing out ink. 

“Urgh, my head….where...where am I?” he mutters, wincing as he sands. He opens his eyes to see five unknown people staring at him with wide eyes. Sammy takes a step back, his eyes equally wide. 

“W-what?! Who are you? What’s going on? If this is some sort of joke, Wally Franks I  _ swear _ \--”

“Not a joke. Uhh, you feeling okay buddy?” Tom asks with a tilted head, and Sammy whips his head around to look at the large Boris. Henry swears his eyes are about to pop out of his face. 

“Boris? Wait, no, that voice--Tom?” he stammers, completely and utterly confused. “What the @#$?! Is going on?!” As Sammy curses, the word is censored, and a loud squeaky toy noise replaces it, causing Sammy to slap his hands around his mouth. 

“Oh that is beautiful,” Tom comments with a laugh, and Alice does her best to hold in a snicker. 

Allison rolls her eyes, deciding to step in. “Sammy, it’s me, Allison...what do you remember? What’s your last memory?”

Sammy looks shocked at the sight of Allison, his blond brows furrowing as he thinks. “I was told to come into a meeting with Drew...and then...nothing.” He looks lost, gripping his temple only to stop when his hands feel his horns. 

“What the @#$?!, who is doing that?!” he asks, looking around, and even Bendy can’t hold back a laugh. Sammy jumps at the sight of the toon, reaching out for his cheeks and pulling them with a mighty stretch. “He feels so real, you guys really went all out…”

Bendy swats Sammy’s hand with a growl, “Hey, hey, keep your paws off! Just ‘cause you seem to be a demon like me don’t mean you can touch!” he scolds, and Sammy looks at him with confusion. 

“Demon?” 

Allison winces. “Well...um you’re sort of a toon...devil. Much like Henry here. He sort of brought you back as... that.” She gestures to Henry and then to all of Sammy. She isn’t sure how to explain all this to him. It seems his memory of the studio is gone, since he said the last thing he remembered was meeting Joey. 

So it was probably before all of this even happened. 

“Toon? Henry?!” Sammy asks, his voice getting higher as he gets angrier. He looks himself over, hitting his face and stretching it out. “I’m a toon?!” he just about shrieks and Alice laughs loudly. 

“Oh, I am  _ so _ happy that you didn’t do that,” Alice croons and Henry shrugs, gesturing to the fact that he couldn’t speak. 

Sammy’s reaction is pretty normal for, well, Sammy. He seems just about ready to hyperventilate, his chest rising and falling as he looks to Henry with wide eyes. ‘Tell me there’s a way to change me back. I can’t be looking like some some Bendy knock off!” Sammy whines, gripping at Henry’s vest and shaking him like a doll. 

Sammy looks as if he’s just about to pass out, his eyes swirling a bit as Henry reaches to grab him. Bendy moves himself closer to Sammy as music notes begin to appear in a small halo around the new toon’s head. 

“I think you killed him,” Bendy comments, only getting Henry to sigh and shake the musician, hitting his cheek a bit to snap Sammy out of it. 

“Oh stop with the dramatics, it ain’t so bad. You get used to it, plus Henry can’t speak ya dimwit. You’re not gonna get anything from him unless you know ASL,” Tom states, and Sammy tilts his head. He lets Henry go and the angel wipes his vest off with a huff. 

“What happened here? Why do I feel like I’m missing something?” Sammy asks, looking to Tom and Allison. 

Tom rolls his shoulders, rubbing his canine snout. “Do you feel...like calling him your lord?” he asks, pointing to Bendy, who straightens up with a roll of his eyes. 

“What? No? Why would I ever?” Sammy asks, still confused, and Tom nods.

“He’s good.” Tom grins and Allison shakes her head, placing a hand on her forehead and muttering something that Henry can’t quite catch. 

Bendy sighs at that, he no doubt was uncomfortable with Sammy calling him his Lord. At least he’s not a ink-obsessed maniac. Henry pats Sammy on the back, he completely knew how it felt to suddenly be changed into a toon and could sympathize with the other man. Sammy just reacts differently, per usual. 

“A devil. You turned me into a devil,” Sammy whines, looking at Henry with a peeved look, suddenly glancing down at the arrow shaped tail thrashing against his leg. “And a tail too?! Lovely, this is great, juuust  _ great _ !” 

“Oh, buckle up buttercup, at least you don’t look like a Salvador Dali painting,” Alice snarks back, her arms crossed. “I suggest we find Norman and get ready for this revolution.” She steps away from them all, heading down the studio. 

“Is that Susie? What happened to her? And Norman? What’s wrong with him? What happened to this place? I knew those @#?! pipes were no good!” Sammy asks question after question as they begin to follow her out, the poor devil tripping over his own feet and his tail. 

“It’s a long story…We’ve got a lot to catch you up on.” 

“Well at least I’m taller than Henry,” Sammy states as he walks beside Henry. He’s a few inches taller than the angel toon, and Henry raises a brow at the newly turned toon. Maybe they should just put the drama queen back into the ink. 

 

…

 

“Wait, wait, wait. So you’re telling me  _ Drew  _ did all this?” Sammy interrupts Allison for the billionth time as they trek further into the studio to find Norman Polk. Allison decided on the way she would fill in the gaps of Sammy’s memory, leaving out some parts that would obviously upset him. For the time being, anyways. 

“Yup,” Allison says as she continues to walk, not looking back at the newly turned toon. Sammy tilts his head and gives out a large sigh. 

“I knew this place was going to the dogs, I should have left when Henry did,” Sammy mutters and Henry frowns quietly. If Henry had even known this was going to happen, he would have founded a way to stay, to keep the studio from falling into hell. 

Tom sighs at that. “We all would have.” He seems just as angry as Sammy was for staying as long as he did. 

“So...Drew did something to make the Ink Machine just about turn us all into crazy cartoons, and the only way to stop him is to turn the machine off and fight him?” Sammy asks, looking at the ragtag team before going, “Oh, we are going to die.” 

Henry rolls his eyes, rubbing his temples at the toon beside him. Sammy was always a pessimist, thinking the glass was half empty. 

Henry had some doubts of his own, but...maybe things could different. After all, the hero usually wins in the end right? Not that he’s a hero in any way. 

“It’s better to die trying than to sit around and suffer,” Allison states firmly, and Tom nods in agreement. They’re both committed to stopping Joey, and Henry is too. 

“Besides, it’s a way to go, right? Everyone’s got a dream of dyin’ for the right cause,” Bendy adds, looking to the musician-turned-toon with a wide grin.

Sammy just glances at the dancing demon, a look of distaste on his face. “I never expected to be walking around as a toon, talking to a fictional character while my boss is trying to kill us,” he mutters, and Henry snorts at that. 

_ Welcome to Drew Studios, _ Henry signs with a half smile on his lips. 

Sammy sees the movement of his hands and frowns. “We should get you something to write on, because I’d rather not find out that you’re making fun of me.” 

_ Me making fun of you? I’d never _ , Henry signs with a larger grin and Sammy huffs, shoving the angel a bit to the side. 

“Ey, watch it!” Bendy shouts, almost falling over from Sammy pushing Henry. Henry grabs his hand before he does so, helping him upright. 

Allison glances back at the three toons, smiling slightly in amusement. “I’m sure we can find something for Henry. Have you tried using speech bubbles? Don’t toons do that?” 

Henry tilts his head at the question. He’s still working out the mechanics of toons, so no, he hadn’t tried. That and he was sort of busy dealing with crazy ink monsters and an ex-best-friend who tried to murder him. 

“Oh that’s easy, you just gotta concentrate,” Bendy says. “I’ve seen you do it before. It’s almost natural.” Of course Bendy would know the ins and outs of toon behavior and whatnot. He was a toon. 

Henry shrugs, he’s sure if he needs to he would be able to communicate with them. 

“He should be around here!” Henry stops when Bendy just about crashes through him to get to the room to the right. “I remember chuckin’ the head into this room and leavin’.” The demon toon rushes into the room, tail wagging as he peeks into the corners.

Henry follows the others as they all pile into the room, searching for Norman. He assumed the projector head was Norman Polk; unlike Sammy, who had just been a inky mess of a man, Norman seemed to be fused with the object. 

Something told Henry that Norman saw something he wasn’t supposed to and paid the price.

Henry frowns at that, leaning over to look into a pile of debris. He sees black wires poking out from the discarded cut-outs and broken bits of wood. The smell of decay is evident, and Henry begins to dig through the pile, pulling out a heavy metal object. 

A exclamation point appears above his head as he turns around, showing off the projector in his hands. 

“That’s Norman?” Sammy asks, leaning forward. Henry tilts the piece in his hands, looking for a way to turn it on or figure out how to get Norman back. 

“Sadly, yes…” Alice whispers, watching Henry fumble with the device. “Maybe there’s a switch? Or perhaps we need to get a spark to turn it on?”

He hopes it’s not the latter, because electricity is scarce. Half of the studio is covered in darkness where the electric bulbs don’t turn on anymore. Henry traces the side of the projector and hears a large click as something pricks at his skin. Henry pulls his hand away, giving out a garbled yelp of surprise.

The projector starts to whirl and shake in his hands, and Henry watches it tumble out of his grip and onto the floor. 

Henry reaches for Sammy and Bendy’s tails and yanks them back while everyone else steps away, watching the projector flicker on and off, making strange sounds. 

A pool of ink starts to sputter out of it like a waterfall. It isn’t quite liquid nor solid, a sort of sticky blob that oozes out of the ports of the machine. Soon the blob is starting to make a humanoid shape as a hand slams onto the floor, and then a back, and feet.

With a startled gasp, the projector became the projectionist, although this time his body isn’t as stretched and odd, looking much more like an object head in some of the cartoons that aired. 

A static noise can be heard as the projectionist’s white-gloved hands reach for his head. Norman is wearing a grey suit and white tie, slightly splattered with ink, but the projector still rests on his head, bits of wire falling down much like hair would.

“W...where?” a static voice echoes from the chest of the toon and Henry smiles widely. It was good to see Norman back; well, not really  _ back _ , but he supposed sane was the correct term. 

“Norman, can you understand me? It’s me, Allison, and Tom’s here too,” Allison says, stepping forward to the toon. He’s much taller than Sammy and Henry, reaching to Tom’s shoulders. 

The projector head swings toward Allison and they see the light of the lens look her up and down, much like an eye. “Allison?” he questions, tilting his head slightly. “Tom? Where?”

“You’re at the studio. Things are a bit different. What’s the last thing you remember?” Tom asks as Norman looks at himself with the glow of the lens. He’s definitely more calm about this than Sammy was; Sammy is just standing there with his mouth wide open. 

Norman pauses, something clicking in the projector, and suddenly he looks over to the bare wall, and images flare to life. 

_ It’s Norman, he is entering the office of Joey Drew. Joey has his hands laced under his chin, a dark look on his face.  _

_ “Sir?” Norman starts, “You called--”  _

_ Joey looks at the man with a small frown, the corners of his lips dipping slightly. “Norman, it has come to my attention that you have been working late, yes?”  _

_ Norman shifts, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, you want these projectors fixed? Sometimes it takes all night,” he says simply, and Joey nods.  _

_ “Tell me, have you seen anything..unusual lately?” Joey’s voice is like ice, the sound sending chills down Norman’s back.  _

_ “Not that I know of, sir what is this all ab--”  _

_ Joey slams his hand onto the desk and stands, sweeping something from under his desk and gripping it tightly. “I know you are lying, I know you keep  _ **_his_ ** _ letters after I throw them away.” He states and Norman swallows. _

_ “Sir, I know you’re angry at Henry, but he still cares for you, for all of us. He wouldn’t write us letters anyways.” Joey steps closer to him and the man smiles softly.  _

_ “That is a matter of your own opinion Norman...why don’t we take this to the projector room. I wish to see the work you have done,” he says, placing his hands behind his back, still holding whatever it was, his demeanor completely changing.  _

_ Norman hesitates but quietly agrees and they take the stairs to the projection room. The room is small, and you could see some of the studio from below. No one was working at the time due to it being quite late. Norman goes to one of the projectors lifting up a panel to show the insides, his back turned from Joey.  _

_ “I do apologize for this, I know you saw Lawrence, and I can’t have you holding my secrets. Let’s see what this will do to you.” Norman doesn’t get a chance to say anything as Joey slams a bottle onto his head, black liquid splattering onto his head and the projector.  _

_ The liquid hardens and causing Norman to stick to the projector as the liquid travels around the device. Norman shouts in pain as the liquid is gripping at his face, traveling down his neck and pulling him closer to the device.  _

_ Wires begin to wrap around him and he screams in agony as Joey steps away, watching like a scientist would with an experiment. The screams get more and more metallic and strange as the projector practically swallows Norman’s head and replaces it with its own, ink starting to pour down the projectionist’s once-human body.  _

The light flickers and suddenly stops and Norman takes a step back, obviously in pain. “God damn him!” Alice shouts in frustration. “He did this! He did this to us!” Her face starts to drip, her eye running with ink. Allison reaches for her, holding her hand tightly. 

“What did Drew do to me? You saw what happened? Why can’t I remember?!” Sammy stammers and Norman turns to look at the small toon, seeing Sammy for the first time. 

Norman gives a soft sigh. “Best if you didn’t,” he whispers, and Henry is glad that he doesn’t remember being turned into a toon as well. He assumes it wasn’t as agonizing as Norman’s was, but still, he’s grateful that he did not experience it. 

“I’m sorry,” Bendy whispers quietly, “I didn’t know any...any of this happened. Why would he do such a thing? He said...he said he was tryin’ to help you, but really he did all of this!” Bendy shouts, his body starting to drip with ink. Henry bends down and wipes away the excess ink.

“That’s why we gotta finish this, we gotta take this studio back. You in, Norman?” Tom asks as he looks to the projectionist. 

Norman looks at him with his bright eye and nods, “Yes. If it means taking back what is rightfully ours...I’ll help with anything I can.” 

Henry smiles at the team that’s starting to form. A revolution is coming, and Henry is ready to fight. Ready to pay back all the pain and suffering they all had faced. Together...they would win back the studio.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the chapter is up! Sorry it took a bit, this one was so fun to write. I want to thank everyone for over 1k views. I’m so happy that everyone is enjoying the fic as much as I love writing it. 
> 
> Thanks again Avablook for beta-reading! 
> 
> Also if you want to check out the designs for Sammy and Norman they’ll be on my tumblr!


	7. Let's End Your Time to Lay Low

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is done! Thank you so much for your patience and time after the small break I had from writing this. Writer’s block can be a real bitch. I hope you enjoy this chapter, on with the show!

Steadily, they began the ascent to the Ink Machine. It was still on the first floor of the studio, where Henry had last seen it-or at least, he hoped it was. Henry was starting to feel like they were in the seven layers of hell, slowly climbing back to the top.

So far Joey had not shown his face. His goons weren’t after them as much as before, either. Henry didn’t know what was going on inside of Joey’s head, but something told him it wasn’t anything good. 

Now with seven people, all seemed a bit safer. Sure, four of them were complete toons, but it didn’t mean they wouldn’t fight. Henry wasn’t about to let his condition take him away from the heat of battle. 

He was pissed, and had every right to be pissed. Henry wanted just knock Joey out, give him a good punch. Maybe break his nose. Something along those lines. First Joey dragged him all the way here after dead silence of 30 years, then he got turned into a toon by a deranged mish-mash of a toon and human, then he was just about to melt into the floor no thanks to Joey Drew, his good ol’ pal. 

So yes, Henry had every right to be mad. As did everyone else. 

He let out a frustrated sigh, eyebrows pinched in slight anger. 

“Something tells me you’re not too happy about this,” Norman comments, the speaker in his chest making his voice sound odd. The accent was still there, the southern drawl, but it sounded like he was hearing it through a phone or a walkie-talkie. 

Henry gives him a look, as if to say ‘you think?’. Norman just shrugs, his projector eye sweeping to the side.  

“I don’t think anyone is too happy about this,” Sammy mutters, finally able to keep up and not trip over himself. 

“It’s not da end of da world to be a toon, ya know,” Bendy states, and Henry looks to him, seeing the slight drip of ink falling off Bendy’s face. “We ain’t disgustin’.”

Henry pauses and then pats Allison’s side to get her attention, the angel stopping to look at him, her eyebrows raised.

_ ‘What does that mean?’  _ he questioned to Bendy and Allison turned to the small toon relaying his question to the small devil. 

“Nothin’,” Bendy mumbles, crossing his arms, and Henry’s brows furrow. No, there had to be something wrong. He could tell it was bothering Bendy. 

‘ _ Please tell me. I can tell it’s bothering you,’  _ Henry signs. Bendy grumbles under his breath, pie-cut eyes not looking at Henry but at the floor.

“You said it before. Joey said. Dat you think ‘m disgusting cuz ‘m a toon,” Bendy says, his fists clenched, and Henry blinks at the statement.

“He’s never said such a thing,” Allison translates as Henry is rapidly signing. “Whatever Joey may have told you is wrong. Henry never even knew you existed.” 

Bendy looks to him, unsure. Untrusting. Henry doesn’t know what Joey told him. All those lies that the man spread into Bendy’s mind were enough to piss Henry off even more. Slandering his name, feeding lies to his own creation, one he didn’t even know existed?! 

Henry is fuming at this point, pacing around and signing so rapid that Allison can’t keep up. “Henry, Henry. I can’t understand what you’re signing.”

A frustrated sound of static can be heard as symbols appear above Henry’s head, halo bent out of shape. 

“He’s obviously mad,” Sammy points out the obvious, and Norman sighs, rubbing his head. 

_ ‘I never once said that you were disgusting. I was sent to war and Joey was furious. I left because of him, I left because I didn’t want to deal with him anymore. Not because of you or anything else,’  _ Henry firmly signs after a good minute of just breathing in deeply. ‘ _ So please understand my situation here. I’m mute so communication isn't exactly an easy task for me, and I never even knew all of this was going to happen.’  _

Finally Henry puts his hands down and Allison finishes relaying the information. They all look uncomfortable at the mention of being sent to war, they knew he was drafted. 

Bendy swallows quietly, looking at his feet. “M sorry.” 

Henry blinks at the soft statement tilting his head, giving a ‘why’ to Bendy. 

“Cuz..cuz Joey put all those ideas in my head and I listened! I didn’t…” Henry stops Bendy, placing his hands below Bendy’s chin and lifting his head to look at the little devil. 

‘ _ He tricked us all. You can’t blame yourself...though you did do some naughty things,”  _ Henry smirks and Bendy pushes his hands away with a small huff-like laugh, the smile growing back on his face.

“Let’s get moving,” Tom mutters. As much as he liked closure between people, he didn’t like the idea of staying in one place for a long period of time.

Henry nods, they all could share feelings later. He was happy that Bendy got it off his chest; the little devil seemed very set on the idea that Henry didn’t like him, that Henry was disgusted by him. 

He isn’t. If this was any other situation he would be thrilled to bits at the sight of Bendy. How Bendy was created, however...he didn’t want to know. Joey had been messing with some sort of magic or who knows what. This type of stuff wasn’t  _ normal. _

They trek through the studio, using the stairs since Alice had broken the elevator when she had her tantrum with Henry. Bendy wasn’t the only one with anger issues. 

Arriving on Level K, they all decide to take a breather. Henry curses Joey for having so many stupid levels to this studio. Did he really need to have so many? It made absolutely no sense. 

Why would an animation studio  _ need  _ all these levels anyways?! 

He notices that the toons of the group had no trouble climbing the stairs but the ones that were a mix match of toons were leaning against the wall to catch their breath. Henry wonders just  _ what _ happened to them all. Did Joey experiment on them? 

Henry knows Susie had been called into Joey’s office, and no doubt he tried to make her into an Alice toon. But obviously it didn’t work out so well. At least she was looking better than before. Her hair was cut short, much like her old style, except a bit more jagged and not curled at the ends. 

He’d never seen Allison before all this, so he didn’t know if the ink altered her appearance other than the halo and horns. 

All this for  _ what _ , Joey? 

_ I never liked that Joey Drew, he keeps you in that studio all day and all night. I barely get to see you, Henry! _

Henry swallows at the memory of his wife’s voice. She always wasn’t too happy about the idea of him staying overnight to work on the animation. One time she threatened to bring her frying pan into the studio and give Joey a good talk. Henry smiles at the thought. 

Oh, how he misses her. 

There was a time for reminiscing, and this wasn’t it. He breathes out softly putting the memories to the back of his mind. Linda would be his rock. If he didn’t get out of here, he supposed he would see her soon.

That is,  _ if _ he could die.

Swallowing, he shifts his attention to his group of misfits. 

“Okay, so we just keep walking and we’ll get there soon,” Allison says, her hand on her hip as she glances at her team. 

“Honestly, why did is this studio so big? What is the purpose of an animation studio being this large?!” Sammy whines, tugging on his horns, his tail just about tapping on the floor in his frustration.

“Relax, we’ll get there,” Tom mutters, rolling his eyes a bit. Sammy groans, mumbling under his breath as Norman gives a large sigh. 

This team was definitely...interesting. 

Allison leads the group and they enter the pathway of the Angel and Devil. As they all pile into the room there’s a noise. With a sound like a running faucet, ink falls from the ceiling, covering the way they came. Henry steps back with wide eyes, seeing the ink harden and crack, blocking the way. 

Tom turns around and begins to beat at the ink, but nothing seems to break it down. Even Allison begins to hack at it with her machete, the blade bouncing off the ink that splattered across the entrance like it was made of rock. 

“Looks like we can’t go back there,” Norman states, his eye illuminating the dark room. 

“Great! Just great!” Sammy says, throwing his hands in the air as Alice sighs.

Allison sheathes her weapon to her side and looks at the two pathways. “We’ll take the Angel side. It’ll be faster,” she says and Bendy makes a noise in disagreement.

“Why not take da Demon side huh? Gotta bias for us Devils?” he asks, pointing to Sammy and himself.

Sammy makes a pained noise and presses a hand to his chest. “I am no devil!” he shouts, and Bendy turns around with a wide grin.

“Hate ta break it to ya, but ya got horns and a tail. Yer a devil, Sammy,” Bendy sings and Henry sighs, loudly. 

“Anyways,” Tom says over Sammy and Bendy bickering, “I agree with Allison. The Demon side is flooded with ink, and I wonder  _ who _ did that,” he says, looking over at Bendy with narrowed eyes. 

Bendy whistled loudly toeing the floor. “I dunno wat yer talkin’ about.”

“Enough! You all fight like children,” Alice says. “Now, let’s get going before we get caught in here like a bunch of sitting ducks.” She turns her heel and steps to the Angel side of the room with a huff. 

Allison and Tom follow. Henry is right behind them but as soon as Tom gets into the hall, a wall of ink splatters in front of Henry hardening much like the webbing on the door behind them. He stumbles back falling on his bottom with a small groan. 

“No, no!” Sammy shouts, slamming his fists against the ink. 

“Are you okay?!” Allison shouts through the wall.

“We’re fine!” Norman answers, helping Henry up as they hear relieved sighs.

“Okay, looks like you’ll have to go through the Devil side! We’ll meet up with you later okay?” Allison shouts.

“You can’t be serious?!”

Henry runs a hand through his hair, this had Joey written all over this. Divide and conquer. Damn it!

He walks over to the opening of the Demon rooms and looks over at the others. He gestures for them to follow and Sammy looks at the sign of the Demon before giving a melodramatic sigh. 

“Great, and we can’t even understand you either! I sure don’t know sign!” Sammy says as they walk towards the entrance of the Devil’s path.

Henry knows this. It would be challenging but they could do this. He grabs his halo floating above his head and leans into the doorway, the faint light of the metal ring illuminating the room. 

Tom was right, the room was flooded with ink. It dribbled out of the room splashing against their feet. 

“We don’t have all day, let’s get this over with,” Norman says, and Henry nods in agreement. They need to get back to the group as soon as possible.

They all entered the room. Thankfully Norman had his eye that allowed more light into the room along with Henry’s halo. 

It was a narrow hallway, with a opening corner on the side. The ink laps at their knees; Henry picks up Bendy so he won’t drown in the stuff and holds him close. Henry had taken the Angel side the first time he went through the pathways. He didn’t expect the Devil side to be so run down. The walls were cracked, pillars of ink splattering onto the floor like a constant waterfall. 

“This place is a dump,” Sammy mutters through the silence and everyone just about sighs. Well, at least it was better than the infinite sound of ink just splattering onto the floor. Henry never wanted to so much as touch an ink pen for the rest of his life. 

They travel through the hallway, the ink slowing them down due to it being just about halfway up their bodies. Henry stops when he hears a gurgling noise, the ink bubbling beside him. He steps back and Sammy hits his back with a small noise. 

The ink wiggles as large tentacle-like creatures appear beside them, wriggling and writhing. Sammy yells in fright as one slaps around his waist and lifts him up. The devil hits at it with his gloved hands, squirming to get out of its grip, but the tentacle lifts him higher in the air squeezing him tightly. 

Henry jumps away from another tentacle, holding Bendy close as Norman follows suit backing away as Sammy is being whipped around like a rag doll. 

“A little help?!” Sammy shouts and Norman’s eye shutters a bit, the light flickering in his panic. “Watch out!” Sammy watches as Norman is picked up by his ankle and lifted in the air. Henry watches as the tentacles shift and churn, turning into what almost looked like a net wrapping them up to the ceiling much like a spider would with its prey. 

Henry makes a noise as he panics, chucking his halo to try and slice away the ink, but the thing just bounces off and lands back on his hand. 

“What are we gonna do?!” Bendy asks as the more tentacles rise up from the ink and Henry breathes in sharply. Damn it! There had to be something! Anything! 

He looks at the ink and a lightbulb goes off in his head. He dodges a swipe from the tentacle running to a blank wall scooping up some ink in hand. He quickly draws an axe with his fingers as Bendy hisses at the tentacles trying to avoid them the best he could. 

The axe plops down onto the ground and Henry grabs it, swinging the weapon with such a force that it slices through the first tentacle like butter. 

Swipe after swipe, he takes down the tentacles with anger boiling inside him. This was really how Joey was going to play?! Bastard never liked to fight his own battles but made others do it for him. 

The tentacles all fall to the inky floor and it’s quiet again. Henry pants loudly, still holding onto the axe with a strong grip. He looks up at Sammy and Norman who are basically sticking to the ceiling. The ceiling that is far too high for him to reach. 

“Nice going! Now get me down from here!” Sammy shouts as he tries to wiggle his way out, but nothing seems to do any good. 

Henry sighs, taking Bendy off his shoulder and placing him on a discarded crate so he could try and figure out how the hell he was gonna get them down. 

“Are you okay, Henry?” Norman says, his eye looking at the Angel. Henry gives a thumbs up as he searches the room. Maybe he could find a bunch of crates…no, they all seemed to have water (well, ink) damage and no doubt would crumble at the touch. 

How was he going to do this?! 

If only he had a way to jump or, hell, even fly up there.

“H-Henry...” Bendy stammers as he points to the ink bubbling below him. Henry panics, moving away, but the ink begins to boil below his feet, spraying up like a gyster and hitting Henry full force. 

“Henry!” the others all shout, but the ink doesn’t seem to harm him, instead it circles and curls around him, much like a blanket. There’s a moment of silence before the ink spreads out, forming what look like two wings attached to his back. Henry suddenly feels a odd weight on his back and stumbles backwards, the ink following suit, forming into a feather-like texture on the surface of the wings as they flap, catching his balance. 

“Wings?!” Bendy shouts as Henry turns his body to look at them. Henry makes a noise of surprise as they twitch with his moments, much like real wings would. 

“Well I’ll be damned,” Norman whispers as Henry glances up, then back to his newfound wings. Scrunching his face a bit, he sticks his tongue out in focus trying to see if he can flap them on his own accord.

It’s like second nature as his wings flap and launch him upwards. He wobbles for a bit almost falling back down, but his inky wings carry him, fanning out as he smiles widely at Norman and Sammy.

“Okay, great! Now get us out!” Sammy says and Henry grabs the axe and begins to chop away at the webbing, finding it surprisingly easy to do so. 

“Wait wait wait! Catch me Henry!” Sammy shouts but Henry is too late and the devil belly flops onto the ink with a loud slap. Henry pulls away from his handiwork seeing Sammy pull himself out of the ink with a large gasp stumbling to stand up.

“@#$?! you Henry!” he says pointing a finger while Henry gives a small raspy chuckle,not caring about the stinging in his throat. He goes back to Norman and begins to chop away holding the Projector’s hand and carefully floated back down.

“Oh, you guide him down to the ground, huh?!” Sammy says as Henry plants his feet onto the floor, wings folding closer to him.

“Are they permanent?” Norman asks ignoring Sammy and Henry gives a shrug.

He didn’t know, logic in this studio was easily tossed out the window. 

“They’re so cool!” Bendy says, his eyes going into stars as he jumps down to take a better look. Henry chuckles rubbing the back of his head. This was all still new to him. 

“Yeah, yeah, he’s great. Let’s get moving,” Sammy mutters as he stomps away with Norman giving a chuckle. 

Henry follows, noticing Bendy reaching for his hand. He lets Bendy grab his gloved hand and gives a gentle smile. It was nice, to see Bendy become more comfortable with him. 

Especially after that talk. 

The ink settles. Henry keeps his eye out for any other sort of pest that would get in their way. Joey could try, but he wasn’t going to stop them. They were going to turn off that machine, then face Joey head on. Hopefully turning off the machine would find a way to reverse the process. 

As much as he loved not feeling his joints aching, he wanted to be back in his own human body. He never wanted to step back into this studio ever again. 

The path of the Demon was fairly short and they were able to make it out without facing another problem. 

Just as they stepped out, Allison and the others were just behind. They panted harshly and Henry gave a happy sigh to see that they were unharmed.

“Good, you’re okay,” Allison breathes and stops when seeing Henry’s new appendages behind him.

“Nice,” Tom says as Henry gives a small shrug. “I’m guessing you guys got attacked?”

“You’re damn right! Drew’s gonna get a mighty earful from me when I see him!” Sammy shouts, his tail just about slamming against the ground in his anger. 

Bendy and Tom give a small chuckle in amusement of the raging devil. 

“Henry was able to take them down, and gained wings,” Norman explains as he steps out of range of Sammy’s flailing tail. 

Alice looks Henry up and down, and Henry gives a small huff. He isn’t too big on all the attention going to him.  _ We have to keep moving. If we stay in one place then he might grab us. _

“He’s right, we don’t have time to sit and talk,” Allison says quietly and Henry nods. He’d rather they get this entire thing over with. 

They needed to get to the machine, to the heart of it all. Either Joey or the Machine itself was causing this place to just dive into the deepest part of hell. One of them was going down if Henry had anything to say it. He took in a deep breath as they traveled up to the Heavenly Toys Station. He was surprised to see that it was worse than before.

Ink was everywhere, and he meant everywhere. He could tell Alice was getting finicky when they waded through the liquid, cringing as the ink lapped at their sides. The ink consumed them. Henry was confused to how the ink even worked. Was it some sort of sentient being? A hive mind of souls trying to break free? 

Henry didn’t want to go back to the well of voices. The studio was crumbling, the place was falling apart, breaking away as the ink began to overfill.

“What happens when we get to the machine?” Norman inquires, his eye turning to Allison who looked over her shoulder golden eyes slightly glowing in the darkness. 

“We destroy it. Once and for all.”

“And what will happen to us? Aren’t we all made of ink?” Sammy asks and Henry realizes that is a good question. What would happen to all of them? 

Would they melt away, back to the ink? Or would they stay like this for the rest of their life?

“I don’t know,” Allison whispers as Tom places a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.

There’s dead silence as everyone stops, just a moment to reflect on what had been said. “You don’t know?” Sammy’s voice is quiet, scared. 

“Whatever happens, it’s probably better than whatever we have been dealing with now,” Alice says, her broken halo flickering to show her internal panic.

Henry looks at them all, he can see how scared they are. He would be lying if he wasn’t scared, too. But that was overshadowed by the idea of Joey doing worse than what he already had done. Creating these creatures, pulling them out of the ink, and messing with his coworkers too? 

It was enough to break away the fear and bring the fury.

The studio rumbles, floors creaking and dust falling from the ceiling. Henry looks up and narrows his eyes. Joey is doing something, but what? God only knew. 

“This dump is going to collapse on us,” Sammy mutters, whipping Henry with his tail. The angel sighs grabbing the wild tail and yanking it hard enough to get Sammy to yelp and rub his backside, narrowing his pie-cut eyes at him. Henry just gave him a look saying to watch it. 

“That’s why we need to get to the machine. It’s only a matter of time before we all fall to the ink.” Alice whispers her voice as tight as piano wire. 

“Sus-Alice, you won’t fall to the ink. We won’t let you,” Allison says as Tom gives a firm nod. 

“We’ve all experienced it.” 

“Even after all I’ve done?” Alice whispers her voice different, that was Susie speaking. Henry knew that voice. 

_ “Forgive and forget,”  _ Henry signs and Allison repeats it for him. Alice looks to him her blackened eye dripping with ink, falling off her thin face. 

“I’m so sorry Henry,” she stammers, and Henry gives a small pat to her hand as the taller angel sobs.

“We’ve all done things here, that we regret. But we can’t focus on that,” Tom says, his gruff voice serious. 

“Imagine that, turning into a dog matured you,” Sammy snarks and gets a smack to the back of the head from Norman who sighs very loudly. 

“Okay, I’m done having a pity party,” Alice says, her voice slightly muffled as she wipes her tears with her clawed fingertips. “Let’s keep moving.”

The further up they get, the more ink starts to splatter on the floor, floorboards creak and groan as if in pain as they walk. 

Henry is cautious when walking through; he’s found many,  _ many  _ times how weak these floorboards are. It took two hands to count how many times he’s fallen to another level. 

And the shaking of the studio doesn’t help either. 

This time the rumbling was loud and shook the entire ground. The floor began to just about scream as the earth trembled, ink splattering out of the cracks of the wall. 

“Earthquake?!” Sammy asks as he just about falls over onto Norman who grabs him quickly.

“More like INKQUAKE!” Bendy shouts as the earth cracks and splits into two, wood splintering everywhere. 

Time seems to stop as Henry sees the floor under Bendy rips apart as if it was cheap fabric. On a whim Henry uses his large wings to push him and launch himself to Bendy pushing him out of the way as the ink underneath the floor begins to boil. 

Bendy tumbles out of the way as the ink grabs Henry like a vice grip. 

“Henry!!” Bendy shouts as the ink lifts Henry up, the angel struggling as Allison begins to hack at the thing with her sword, but nothing seems to work. 

Then the ink sputters and pulls back in a fast motion, sucking Henry into the abyss. Bendy reaches for him only to barely graze his fingertip, watching the Angel fall into the dark mass of writhing liquid.

“HENRY!” Bendy screams as he tries to dive into the ink, but Tom grabs him before he can even try. “Let me go! Let me  **GO!”** His right gloved hand rips, showing inky claws as he tries to scratch his way out of Tom’s grip. 

“Stop, stop! Look! We can’t do anything,” Tom whispers as the ink that covered the split room now drained away, leaving nothing but a dark hole that they could not see the bottom of. 

“Oh god, Henry,” Allison whispers.

…

_ He smells smoke when he first wakes up. His lungs struggle for air realizing that he’s alive. His jet crashed in enemy territory. He thought he was a goner.  _

_ With a groan he pulls himself out of the wreckage, his neck is burning like all hell, he’s bloody, burned at places, and he couldn’t breathe. Broken rib probably.  _

_ Keep moving, Henry. Keep moving. You can’t let them find you.  _

_ Get away from the wreckage. _

_ Limping, he tries to make it to the forest not too far ahead. His throat still ached, he must have damaged it from the fall. Damn it! It hurt to speak, there was blood everywhere.  _

_ Keep...moving… _

Henry gasps loudly, his brain suddenly forgetting that he doesn’t need air anymore. Toon bodies were so odd. He groaned, wincing at the pins and needles jabbing at his nonexistent throat. 

He shudders finding that his halo had fallen to the floor. Squinting he went to pick it up, the metal band glowing brightly at the touch. He looked around to find himself in a room with no doors nor other exits to be seen. Trapped. 

No doubt Joey did this. 

He growls, tossing his halo and watching the thing bounce off the wall, creating a loud echoing thunk. Sparks flew, and he grabbed it, wishing he could see better.

His wings fluttered, and he decided to use them to travel to the ceiling, holding his halo out like a candle. He saw nothing but black, it felt like the hardened ink that was over the door before.

Joey.

Henry growls, loudly slamming his fist against the ceiling slowly falling to the floor. He lays against the cold floor to gather his thoughts, his halo resting in his hand. He twirls it around, only to pause when he sees a strange light. 

He holds the halo up, looking through the metal ring, and he takes a deep breath at what he sees.

Drawings, drawings upon drawings. Scribbles, doodles you name it. There was messy writing, and just random phrases that he had seen before all written in this glowing yellow ink. He stands up, holding the halo close to his face to look through the halo.

_ He thinks he can stop me. _

_ Here, look here.  _

Henry turns his attention to the golden arrows and follows them, then he sees a large circle. With a tilt of his head he kneels to the ground and finds a that one of the floorboards is loose. With a grin he lifts the damaged wood to reveal a small strange lever of sorts under the floorboard.

He smirks, and pulls at it. With a loud crank, the wall behind him opens and a pristine hallway is behind it. Untouched by the ink. 

Walking to the passageway he grins widely, hah! Take that Joey. He twirls the halo around his finger. But what was all that? That writing...the handwriting was different than the usual things he had seen. It seemed...familiar.

Henry pulls the halo back to his face, looking through it, seeing the faint glow of yellow spots twirling around like fairy lights. Interesting… 

Why were the halls so pristine? It seemed the ink had not touched this place. Did this lead up to Joey’s office? 

He stops, hearing noises, sounding like garbled groans, bubbling and frothing. He leans against the wall and glances over the corner. In the middle of the hall was a Striker, or a malformed Edgar. Its spider body was twisted and turned into something horrific. 

“Huuurts…” the thing whines as it wobbles about. 

Huh, he never heard it say anything like that before. Was it because he was a toon he understood them? Henry swallows, watching Edgar limp away from his field of vision. 

He just needed to get out of here and regroup back with the others. Who knows what kind of trouble they may be. Henry keeps his body against the wall, halo tight in hand. 

He lost his goddamn axe too. Of course he did. He hissed a small bit of curses under his breath not caring for the pain that came with it. 

The Angel travels down the halls, avoiding the deformed Butcher Gang to the best of his ability. He peeks into his halo every once in a while to see arrows pointing to a certain area. 

Who drew these? 

He is too busy focusing on the halo when he hears shouting and he turns to see all three of the Butcher Gang pointing at him, and he yelps. Great, just great. 

Running at top speed, he skids around a corner, his wings providing him an ability to just about glide around the labyrinth of this untouched hall. 

He halts when coming to a dead end, his chest panicking as the Butcher Gang comes closer.

“Traitor...traitor..” they murmur and Henry groans. This again?! Damn it, Joey, he wasn’t a freaking traitor! 

Henry flings his halo at Barley, only to not do much but knock him backwards a bit. It seemed these ink creatures were more resistant than the searchers and gatherers. Okay, maybe he could fly over them and get out of here! 

With a leap, his inky wings pick him up and he glides over. But that is short lived as Barley launches his head and it chomps down onto Henry’s foot. Henry shrieks in pain as the Fisher tugs him down onto the ground. He hits the floor with a groan, beating the head off his foot with his halo. 

The three gang up close and Henry winces his wings covering his body, as if some sort of shield, expecting a painful death. 

Instead there’s large groans and gurgles, and a large laugh. He lifts his head to see three puddles near him, and a large figure standing in front of him.

Henry swallows and lifts his head up, seeing a Boris. But this Boris was different. He was shorter, a bit more on the thin side than Tom and the other Borises Henry had seen. His fur was almost fluffier, with curls atop his head, curling around his cheeks, and a sepia-colored bandana rested on his neck. The Boris tilted his head. In his hand was a large gent pipe that was covered in ink. 

“H...Henry?”

_ Wally? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you for all the hits, comments and kudos! It means so much to me! 
> 
> Also thank you avablook for beta reading once more!


	8. Bend the Nightmare

He doesn’t know how long they’ve stood there staring. Henry would know that voice anywhere: Wally Franks. Wally is  _ alive.  _ After what Alice had done, what Bendy had done, Wally is still kicking. He just looks a bit different. 

There’s a small moment of shock for the Boris before he swoops down and grabs Henry, pulling him close and swinging the angel around with a hearty laugh. “I knew it, I knew it! I was sure I was gonna find one of ya down here! And boy howdy was I right!” 

Henry gives a small squeak as the taller Wally squeezes him tightly against his fuzzy chest. He manages an awkward pat before the Boris lifts him away, holding him under the arms like one would hold a cat. 

“Well, I will have ta say this form suits ya,” he chuckles and Henry gives a small hum in response. He gestures for the excited Wally to put him down, his wings fluttering in his embarrassment about Wally being able to actually pick him up and swing him around like a rag doll. He’s a grown man, not some kind of toy! 

“Right, sorry.” Wally places Henry down and the Angel wipes his vest off clearing his throat. “Where are the others, did ya find them?”

Henry nods, about to sign, but stops as he realizes he doesn’t have a translator with him. Great, just great. He makes a motion, pantomiming what had happened and Wally tilts his head, his ears flopping to the side. 

“Oh, so you fell?” Wally says with a bit of confusion. “Can ya not speak?” 

Henry stops and gives a small nod gesturing to his neck.

“Ohhhh...so you’re mute? Why didn’t ya say so! I know ASL!” Wally says, signing the symbol that meant ASL. Henry’s eyes light up and his halo glows brighter than usual. Oh, thank God! 

_ “How do you know ASL?” _ Henry asks and Wally rubs his chin. 

“Well there was this gal, remember dat gal I brought in for the Christmas Party? Yeah, she was partially deaf so she taught me ASL,” Wally says with a laugh. Leave it to Wally to learn a new language to get a girl.

Henry gives his own chuckle and nods. “ _ Well I’m glad you know it so we don’t have a barrier between us.”  _

Wally nods, “You’ll just have to be a bit slow, I’m still a bit rusty.” Henry nods; that was understandable. 

He’s happy to find a friend down here. Yet another person to help the fight between Joey and the employees here. 

_ “That’s fine. I’m glad you’re okay, do…”  _ Henry pauses unsure how to phrase this.  _ “Do you remember anything? How you got like this?” _

The fluffy wolf toon rubs his chin, ears flicking slightly. It was quite an adorable sight. “It’s a bit hazy, if I’m honest. I remember Mr. Drew wanting something, then...there was Alice...and then it’s black...and I wake up in a puddle pulling myself outta the ink and here I am. All revamped!!” He gestured to himself with a huff.

_ “Could be worse.”  _

_ You could be stuck as Brute Boris _ , Henry thinks. 

Henry blinks and then begins rummaging in his pockets. After a moment, he holds out Wally’s keys with a grin. 

“My keys!” Wally barks. His tail wags as he grabs the jingling keyring. “See, I’m glad you’re back Hen, we missed ya.” 

Henry’s smile takes a bittersweet turn, hearing that. He missed them all too. He wishes things were different, that Joey wasn’t doing this crazy shit and sacrificing people, turning them into who knows what. But he was happy to see his coworkers again, happy to see that not all was lost. 

Wally, Sammy, Norman, Tom, Alice ...even the ones that weren’t here. He hoped to bring them away from this inky hell and set them free. To give their souls rest. 

“ _ I missed you all too,”  _ he finally says. Wally grins from ear to ear; behind him, his tail was wagging faster than Henry has thought was possible. 

“Alrighty, I suppose we should get out of this labyrinth huh?” Wally says, twirling the Gent pipe around in his fingers, and Henry nods quietly.

“ _ We have to find the group. Allison, Tom, Sammy, Norman, Alice ...and Bendy,”  _ Henry signs, and Wally blinks.

“They’re all here? Okay? Alive?” he asks, and Henry gives a small nod.

Well, more or less. If you count being mixed with ink and some actual toons as ‘okay and alive’. But he supposed that was better than just being in the ink or...dead. 

“Then let's go and then get the heck outta here,” Wally says, stepping over the inky puddles of what was the Butcher Gang. Henry follows suit, a quick flap of his wings easily letting him jump over the liquid.

Best not to touch the stuff for too long. Who knows what it can do. 

...

This seemed to be the floor where Joey’s new office was located, but the man himself was nowhere to be seen. Henry had seen the inside of the office as they searched for away to climb back up. His own splattered ink still stained the floor.

Henry did his best to explain everything to Wally as they traveled down the labyrinth of this floor. Wally took it in like a sponge, laughing and adding his own commentary to things every now and then. 

He seemed very excited to see Sammy toonified. 

They both have absolutely no idea where they were or how to get out. It seems this part of the studio was warped a bit and they kept walking into dead ends. 

Henry sighs loudly at the seventh dead end and his halo down from his head to see if he can find any clues to getting the heck out of this maze of halls and doors.

“Whatcha got there?” Wally asks as Henry looks through the halo. The wall in front of him is bare of any hidden drawings or writings.

“ _ I figured out this lets me see things that aren’t there. Like someone’s been writing in invisible ink or something,”  _ Henry explains as he turns to the left, looking at the wall. 

_ This place is a maze. _

_ Drain the ink. Open the vault.  _

Henry tilts his head in confusion. Ink? Was there a pathway blocked? He sees an arrow under the writing and grins triumphantly.

“ _ There’s writing on the wall here. Says to go this way. I think we need to drain some ink.”  _

“Ink? Oh! That little door that was blocked from flooding! I was gonna do dat before I ran into you! Completely forgot!” Wally lightly smacks his head with a laugh. Classic Wally being absent-minded about important information. 

“Does that thing only see dat writin’ you were talkin’ about?” Wally asks as he follows the smaller toon down the hall. 

“ _ Not sure. I haven’t checked it out fully-“  _ he turns to Wally, halo still in hand, but stops when he sees through the metal band. 

Instead of seeing the Boris before him, he sees a thin, curly-haired human with freckles littering his face. Exactly how Henry had last seen Wally before he had left, albeit a little older. Wally tilts his head as Henry lifts the halo away from his face to see the Boris staring back at him.

“Ya doing okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

He had, hadn’t he? But it gave Henry hope that there was a way to reverse this all. To give Wally back his actual body. The same for the rest of the group. Did this halo show not just the hidden messages on the wall, but the hidden forms under all the layers of ink? 

“ _ Thought I saw something. Come on, I’m tired of walking around these halls over and over again.”  _ Henry hums quietly, the vibration tickling his throat.

Wally looks at him, watching the toon continue to look through the halo and head down the hall. “Sounds like a plan. You lead the way.” He keeps the Gent pipe in his hand, just in case those deformed Butcher Gang members came back from the ink. 

Turns out they’re missing some pipes to completely drain the way out of this mess. They just needed to get some ink so Henry could draw the pipes they needed. The Butcher Gang had broken the machine that would have let them convert the items from the ink. 

It didn’t take long to find a well of ink that continued to sputter out the black liquid. The ink was overflowing past the basin and leaking onto the floor with wet splats. 

“When we were creating dat machine I never would’ve thought..” Wally whispers as Henry reaches into the basin and pulls out a semi-liquid blob. It feels almost like jelly and he dips his fingers into the wiggling mass, seeing the liquid trickle down his hand. 

“ _ It’s in the past, Wally. We can’t blame ourselves for something we didn’t know would happen.”  _ Henry says with a soft look, thinking back to what Tom said. None of them knew this would happen.

After all no one can truly predict the future. 

He goes to a blank wall and begins to paint the first pipe they need. He takes a step back and watches the picture bubble to life, popping out of the wall and hitting the floor with a heavy clank. 

“Amazing! You can draw anything and it’ll come to life?” Wally asks as he bends down to grab it. Henry shrugs, he isn’t sure how this works, he supposed it was mostly objects that he could make. Then again, he did create those flowers, and they seemed to be alive. 

“Okay, you create them all and I’ll go put them into the wall, and call you when it’s done draining. Just in case it doesn’t work.” 

Henry doesn’t like the idea of separating, but he supposes it will be fine. He can defend himself if anything happens, and Wally doesn’t seem like the type to go down without a fight either. 

Soon all three pipes are finished and Wally rushes off with them. Henry can’t help but snicker at the pitter patter of Wally’s paws against the floor as he runs down the hall to complete the puzzle. 

The halls are quiet, no groaning or whining from the Butcher Gang, only the sound of the fountain of ink bubbling beside him. Henry sighs loudly and runs a hand through his hair. It feels like a bad idea to have split up with Wally. It wasn’t a good idea to get separated  _ again.  _

Honestly, how many times has he fallen to broken away from a group? Too many to count. With a shake of his head he walks down the hall, passing Joey’s office again. He looks at the large lettering over the door with distaste. Leave it to Joey to have such a flashy office. 

He halts completely when he hears a soft whimper, the noise different to what he had been hearing from the Butcher Gang. 

It sounded higher, more...feminine. 

And it was coming from Joey’s office. Wally had shut the door when they left the first time. Henry looks around to be sure there’s nothing trying to sneak up on him, and pulls his halo down to serve as a weapon as he reaches for the doorknob with his free hand. 

With a creak, the door opens, and Henry gives a questioning noise as the halo lights up the room. Had Wally turned the light off? Or is the electricity finally giving up on this floor?

He lifts the halo up closer to his face, brightening the room a bit more. He sees a figure hunched over crying softly, and a light flickers a bit.

The figure sees him and gives a small gasp, Henry startling at the sudden light glows above the figure’s head. A halo? 

Time stops when he sees the figure being bathed in light. He can feel his body freeze as a small toon, a bit smaller than him but taller than Bendy steps closer.

It’s a female toon. Her hair is reddish brown, curling around the edges in cute little swirls. Two small horns peek out of her hair and a halo bobs above her head. She’s wearing a white dress with white flats, her gloved hands wiping at the last tears on her face.

She looks to Henry and her piecut eyes widen. “Henry?” she asks and Henry breathes out sharply. That voice…

Before he can react she leaps at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him closer. Instantly he’s greeted with a familiar scent as she nestles close to his chest. 

“Oh, Henry,” she breathes, pulling away and Henry feels tears falling down his face. 

“L..Linda.” He doesn’t care about the burning of his throat as his vocal cords ache. This was Linda. This was his  _ wife _ . He gives out a sob and Linda smiles gently.

With her gloved hands she gently wipes away his tears. “Shhh, no tears, Henry. I’m here...I’m here,” she whispers. Henry gives a shuddery cry, hunching over as he holds her hand tightly, expecting her to melt away, unable to comprehend this was real.

How was this possible? How?! She was  _ dead _ , she was gone. He watched as they buried her on that hill. Why was she here, in this hellhole?

_ Why? _

“It’s okay, I’m here. I’m here.” She brings his hand to her lips, kissing it gently, and Henry is filled with warmth. He’s so tired and seeing her, hearing her...it’s enough to fill his soul with newfound energy.

“ _ Linda,”  _ he signs slowly and Linda tilts her head with a hum. “ _ Why are you here?” _

She doesn’t say anything, almost like she doesn’t understand what he’s doing. But that couldn’t be it. She had made sure to learn ASL so he wouldn’t be alone. ‘A project,’ she called it. Something they could do  _ together _ .

“Let’s go, Henry. Let’s go, me and you, together. We can start from where we left off. You’d like that, right?” Linda asks and Henry looks to her, unsure what was happening. 

“ _ Linda, we need to go to Wally. We have to stop Joey,”  _ he tries again but Linda stops him from signing further by gripping his hands kissing them gently.

“Shhh. Me and you,” she whispers as she begins to step away, holding his hand. She walks out of the hallway going in the opposite direction Wally had gone. 

What was happening? Why wasn’t she listening to him? Could she not understand what he was saying?

He stops walking, dragging his heels into the floor, and Linda halts. She turns around, her eyes meeting his as she tilts her head. “Henry? The exit is this way,” she says, and Henry doesn’t like the feeling starting to form in the pit of his stomach. 

“Henry, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to leave? Who cares about them? They didn’t care to check up on you! Who was here the entire time you suffered?” she asks and Henry swallows.

The exit. 

He could leave.

No, no! He can’t just leave! The others trapped here are his friends, his family. He made great memories here and wasn’t about to let the others all suffer when he could do something about it.

He pulls his hand away from hers and shakes his head. No, no this wasn’t right. Linda would never…

“Don’t you want to rest, Henry?” Her voice is different, sounding much like Alice did when she was mad on the ink. “Rest with me, Henry. Aren’t you tired of this world? Tired of being pushed around, treated like scum?” 

She takes a step closer and Henry steps back, his eyes wide. He hesitantly takes his halo and looks through the band.

What he sees is horrifying. A mesh of ink and paper, looking like an abomination that was just smashed together, barely holding together. Ink splattered onto the floor as soulless eyes looked through him, a gaping mouth shuddering slightly. 

This...this wasn’t Linda. No, no this was some awful trick to keep him from going back to the Machine. This.. _ Joey did this. _

Henry growls loudly and tightens his grip on the halo as Linda stops, blinking rapidly. “Why couldn’t you just play along? You wouldn’t have suffered...Henry.. please just come with me. Come home.”

“You...are not home.” Henry grits as he points his halo at Linda, no, this disgusting imposter who dares use her appearance, her voice, her name. 

Her toon form stops moving as he says that. His throat is burning but he doesn’t care.  _ Joey, Joey how  _ dare _ you. _ There’s a sickening crack as the imposter’s body snaps, bending in places that shouldn’t. Her body twists as limbs grow longer, clawed hands gripping at the tile as Henry takes a step back, his eyes widening. 

Her eyes are nothing but dark black holes now, dripping ink as her horns grow. With a groan, the halo above her head bends, dripping onto her head.

“ **_What’s wrong Henry?”_ **  the creature growls as it falls to the floor. Its limbs move much like a spider’s; it’s head twists so that it hangs upside down. It looks like something straight out of a nightmare.

Henry breathes heavily as the creature crawls closer. “ **_Stay with me Henry! We can live together forever!”_ ** It shrieks as it swipes at Henry, hitting him in the side. Ink splatters across the wall. He yelps in pain, gripping his side as he tumbles backwards. 

The thing crawls onto the wall like gravity is nothing, laughing like a maniac.

_ Run!  _ his brain screams, and he does just that. His wings tuck closer to him, making it easier and faster to slide from corner to corner.

The sound of claws clicking on the ceiling gets louder and Henry glances up to see the twisted Linda deformed and smiling, bits of ink dribbling off her lips. 

_ Damn you, Joey! _

Henry cries out in pain at the sight as he takes another turn, only to see that it’s a dead end. No no no! The doors are locked and he groans loudly, his brain going overdrive on how he was going to do this. How was he going to get out of here with this  _ thing  _ chasing after him.

**_“Oh Henry! Come back and play!_ ** ” The creature laughs as it crawls closer to Henry, slamming onto the floor. Henry holds the halo tightly in his hand, seeing glittering letters below his feet.

_ Nothing better than a scythe to finish the job _ .

A scythe? Henry sees the ink splatter from the creature as it crawls closer, and Henry decides to do something crazy.

He gives a loud shout rushing towards the abomination and slides under its legs wiping his hand against the ground to gather as much spilled ink as he can.

Turning, he begins to draw quickly his mind going a mile a minute. There is only one way to do this. Oh, Linda. He’s sorry, so sorry, to do this. 

The ink bubbles once again and in a flash a bright weapon comes into view. The metal gleams in the dim light, revealing a scythe, golden and covered in intricate designs. Henry holds the weapon close as the thing backs up for a moment.

“ **_Pathetic,”_ ** the thing snarls, and Henry gives a low growl, wielding the scythe as the twisted toon’s long limbs begin to creep closer. Henry gives a final yell and uses his wings to lift him up and swing the scythe down onto the head of the impostor.

There’s a squelching noise as Henry continues to push the bladed weapon further down into its inky body and the thing shrieks in pain, writhing in agony. 

His wings pull him away. The scythe remains embedded in its head, with ink gushing out of the wound. Its limbs collapse as it struggles to breathe. Henry falls to his knees at the sight. It wasn’t his wife, but it wore her. Her hair, her scent, everything he knew about her. Henry feels tears spill down his cheeks as it whimpers loudly in a voice he knows better than his own.

_ I’m sorry. _

_ I’m so sorry. _

Henry dips his head and swallows hard. Whoever this was, Joey stretched them and created them just to do  _ this,  _ just to get at _ him.  _ He feels awful, watching the thing melt away into a pile of ink.

He doesn’t hear the footsteps as he stares at his wife disintegrate into nothing. 

“Henry! Henry!” He feels large paws gripping his shoulders and he finally pulls himself out of the haze looking up at Wally with tearful eyes. 

“Henry, what...what happened? The dang door broke so I had to go and fix it, only to find you here..what was that?” Wally asks gesturing to the puddle of ink before him. The scythe melted away along with the body, leaving no trace of either. Henry couldn’t move. 

He felt so numb.

“ _ Linda. That was Linda.” _

Wally stops altogether, his piecut eyes widening as he looks to the puddle. “W-what? N-no that can’t be right Henry…” He’s at a loss for words, his ears drooping low as he crouches down to sit next to Henry, who just stares off at the distance. His halo is starting to bend and Wally can see his horns slightly droop. His wings are basically flopped to the floor unmoving.

He’s never seen Henry in this much despair. 

“ _ Joey. He did this. He made a toon out of my dead wife. Out of Linda.”  _ Henry’s movements are rigid and Wally knows how it is to be cursed out by someone who signs.

“Joey, that little @#&$!” The curse word is replaced with a loud bark and Wally grits his teeth. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Henry.” He didn’t know Linda was dead, but he did know that Henry loved her, with all his heart. He had been there at their wedding, and that was the true love he dreamed of having one day. 

Henry stands, wiping his face, and Wally looks up at him. “ _ Let’s go. I don’t want to waste any more time.”  _ He gives a small pat to Wally’s head and the Boris moves to stand too before scooping Henry into a soft hug. 

“I’m sorry pal, it’s my Boris instinct,” Wally jokes getting a soft chuckle from Henry as the smaller toon leans into the embrace for a moment. He pulls away and Henry has a small smile on his face. Wally knows that the man would push his emotions and thoughts aside for the sake of others, but sometimes it was best to just let it all out. 

Henry winces slightly at the sudden pain on his side, he grips at it seeing the ink smudging against his white glove. Right, he got clawed. Wally sees it and his eyes go wide.

“Ink! We gotta get you some ink.” Wally stammers looking around while Henry waves his hand trying to tell him he was fine. 

They need to get back to the group.

But Wally doesn’t see his protest and goes into a room, opening a desk drawer and flinging things out of it. A Bendy plushie bounces onto the floor of the hallway, squeaking loudly. 

“Ah ha! Ink!” Wally pulls out an untouched inkwell and hands it to Henry. “Bottoms up!” He grins as Henry gives him an uncertain look.

Never thought he’d see the day where he actually drank  _ ink.  _ Putting the cold inkwell to his lips, he downed the liquid, finding it to taste the same way it smelled: bad. It was metallic and sludgy and he gave a face as he wiped his lips.

Eugh.

Wally smiles softly as the ink stops dripping from Henry’s side. Good as new. He looks to Henry his expression changing to a firm and solemn look. “We’ll get him. He’s gonna get a good walloping from the all of us. Gonna pay for all this @#&$!.” Wally growls, his ears falling back against his head, and Henry nods.

Wally can see the fury on the angel’s face. The way his halo flares brighter and his brows pinch together, fists curled tightly. He’s pissed and Wally thinks he has a good reason to be.

Joey just tried to kill him with his own wife.

_ Talk about psycho.  _

“The place is drained so we should be able to get through,” Wally says as they head out of the halls. Henry sees the pipes in place, as well as the scrapes of metal across the door that was now open. Seems like Wally had been using that pipe to try and get back in. 

Joey had locked him in there,  expecting Henry to go with that Linda and no doubt die, which would let Joey do whatever he’s planned. Something tells him that Henry is the key to why Joey was causing all this trouble. He needs Henry to be out of the picture.

Well, Henry isn’t about to let that happen anytime soon. 

Opening the door to the room now cleared of ink, Wally follows behind Henry, keeping an eye out for any of the searchers that wished to pop out. His memories of this place are still a bit hazy but he knows a thing or two. 

Henry sees the large vault door that has been broken off its hinges, placed to the side of the entrance. Wally whistles loudly at the sight and Henry nods. Who did this? Was it Joey? Or Bendy? Henry isn’t sure, and he doesn’t really want to know.

Inside, the place is ransacked. Reels broken, boxes upturned. Papers are scattered everywhere, as well as ink splattering about in every corner. Per usual.

“There’s ink everywhere. This machine…” Wally mutters as Henry nods. “Looks like someone broke through here as well. Look at it.” 

There are claw marks and it looks like someone forcefully pulled the doors open. “Someone else was here before us. Weird.”

Who was it? Maybe Bendy? He had seen the Ink Demon rip the Projectionist’s head off, so would be be able to do this? 

Henry and Wally peek through the broken doors, seeing a flickering light ahead. They step out of the vault and into the next room. A projector is on and Henry sees a Bendy cutout leaning against the wall. Would Bendy be able to see them?

Wally turns off the projector and the only light in the room is Henry’s halo. The angel toon grabs it and uses it as a source of light. “Sorry, the flashing lights give me the willies,” Wally says, his ears drooping and Henry gives a wave of his hand.

It was fine, he didn’t mind and his halo was a good source of light. 

They continue walking until Henry sees the familiar desk with the small papers still attached to it. Henry gives a small noise looking at the tiny drawing of Bendy left on the desk after all this time. 

“ _ My old desk,”  _ Henry says as Wally leans over. 

“Never knew why Joey didn’t move you to a better place. Or give ya a better chair. Does not look comfortable.” He taps on the weathered chair and Henry nods.

“ _ It wasn’t. My back was always aching after a long day of drawing.”  _ Luckily Linda was always there to help alleviate the pain. His heart aches but he pushes it aside. No, he needed to be strong. For her. To finish this job and right what was wrong.

Wally gives a huff. “He never was good at making his coworkers feel comfortable.” No, Joey only cared about results. If you weren’t working, you weren’t valuable. He saw you as a chess piece on the board, nothing but a way for him to gain something.

Henry sees that now. 

He steps away from his desk in the corner and heads down the hall. There’s a large glass window that travels from one side of the room to the other and Henry stops when he sees ink starting to travel across the way. The Ink Demon? 

Henry rushes to the glass as he hears voices coming from the other side.

“Henry! HENRY!!!”

Bendy. It was Bendy. He sees the lanky Ink Demon crawling closer, looking around, ink covering his face as Bendy cried out for Henry.

“Bendy, get back here please! We can look for him together; you need to calm down!” Allison shouts as Bendy continues to run, not seeing Henry. This must be a one-way mirror. He could see them but they couldn’t see him.

“Oh, Tom, what are we going to do? We lost him. Now we are never-“ Allison whimpers, a small inky tear falling down her face and Tom immediately reaches to wipe it off with his metal hand.

“It’s okay. We  _ will _ find him. We can’t lose hope. Remember?” He quietly grips her hand and Allison nods, squeezing it gently, and then kisses onto his cheek. Henry and Wally see the black blush rising to Tom’s cheeks and his small stubby tail wags slightly.

“Come on, we have to catch up! We can’t have him breaking everything,” Allison whispers as she tugs him along.

They watch the two run out of sight and Wally gives a small chuckle. “That sly dog, I knew he fancied her!” Wally says with a wolfish grin. Henry shakes his head.

It was good to see that despite everything, they still found love here. 

Henry gestures for Wally to follow, hoping they could run into the others. No doubt Bendy rushed off and the others weren’t far behind.

They turn a corner and someone barrels into Henry making the toon tumble onto the floor. Henry glances up to see a Ink covered face, long legs tangled and a small spade shaped tail hitting against the floor.

“Henry!” Bendy cries as Henry gives a happy noise, gently wiping away the ink from Bendy’s face, revealing those piecut eyes overflowing with fat inky tears.

“We found them!” Norman shouts as part of the group comes from one side, and the other come from another side.

Bendy stands up, hunched over whimpering loudly as the others come rushing in.

“Wally?” Tom asks and Wally’s ears perk up and he grins.

“Heya Tom! Wow, everyone’s here!” Wally says his curled tail wagging about. “Pfft, Sammy, looking great.”

Sammy sees the larger toon and his eyes widen. “Oh no, anyone but you!” he whines, rubbing his face as Norman chuckles. Tom goes in to give the other Boris a hug, laughing loudly. 

Allison gives Wally a pat on the head and grins. “It’s so good to see you. Susie....” She stops as Alice steps forward, looking much better than the last time they had seen her.

A single inky tear falls from her face and Wally audibly swallows taking a small step back. “Wally.” Alice’s voice is raw, and it’s filled with remorse and sorrow.

“It’s okay. I-I know...ya didn’t mean..”

“N-no, it’s not okay. What I did...it was inexcusable.”

Wally shakes his head, “I’m okay now. Henry got me back, and I’m here. So it’s okay. I forgive you.” The Boris grins and Alice gives a tiny smile.

“Thank you.”

Henry focuses his attention to Bendy who has his face pressed onto Henry’s head giving tiny whimpers. 

“He was so worried about you Henry,” Allison says and Bendy whines softly. 

Henry reaches up and gives a happy hum, pushing away the fallen ink and tears. He wraps his arms around Bendy’s bony waist, instantly he feels long arms wrap around him.

He quietly shushes Bendy feeling his form shrink as the ink falls off the demon in large waves. He’s now holding a tiny demon in his arms, the little thing nestled against him, his gloved hands not daring to let go.

“Everything’s alright now,” Norman says with a happy sigh, and everyone nods in agreement.

“The Ink Machine is just down here. Are you ready?” Allison whispers and Henry nods.

He’s ready. He’s ready to take Joey on. He needed to pay for what he’s done. To his friends, to his creation, to his  _ wife. _

Henry is coming, whether Joey likes it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another chapter! We are coming to the finale soon so thank you all so much for joining me on this wonderful ride! 
> 
> Also thanks so much for 3k hits!! It makes my heart swell! 
> 
> Special thanks to the wonderful avablook for beta reading this! Without you this wouldn’t be as great as it is!


	9. Burning Bright Until the Very End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it...the final chapter. It's been a wild ride and I enjoyed every part of it! Does it mean I'm done writing? Nope, and who knows what the future holds.
> 
> I'd like to thank a couple people before we start though. 
> 
> First, Avablook, thank you so so much for beta reading and making this fic ten times better than it is. With you it really helped make this story come to life. 
> 
> Second I like to thank Dobermutt and Trashboatprince (RiYuYami) for drawing such wonderful pieces of art and helping me with this story as well. There was countless times where they yelled at me for such angsty ideas. I appreciate all the wonderful feedback and compliments for you both! Same goes for HntrGurl13 and Tsumaranaty!
> 
> And lastly, thank YOU all for reading this story and all your kudos, comments and bookmarks. It made my heart swell to see everyone enjoy this story as much as I did. 
> 
> That being said, let's finish this, shall we?

The studio is silent. Well, as silent as it can be with the constant drip of ink from the burst pipes above their heads, and the clicking of worn gears as machinery attempts to keep the studio from collapsing on itself.

Seems like Joey is pushing the Machine full throttle and it’s causing the studio to fall apart. There are gaping holes, practically bottomless, ripping through the feeble flooring.

They need to be extra careful where they step.

“So how are we doing this? The whole Ink Machine turning off,” Sammy asks as they inch closer and closer to the Machine. “I know that damn thing had a switch to regulate the pumps but does it have an off switch?”

Wally nods. “Ya, but it also has a failsafe too. Just in case good ol’ Joey decides to be a thorn in our side.” Henry remembers the audio tapes where Wally and Tom talked about the Ink Machine.

Did they design it?

“It won’t be a quick and easy job,” Allison whispers quietly. “Tom..”

“I lost my arm shutting it off the first time,” Tom finishes for her and Allison looks away. Henry swallows thickly; if Tom goes back to being the gruff human he knew, would his arm be back, or is it lost forever?

These questions are starting to form in his mind more than they usually do. What’s going to happen to them all? Bendy mentioned that once the Ink Machine was shut off they would not be able to reform in the puddles of ink strewn across the studio.

Would they be stuck like this?

“We won’t let that happen this time. It ain’t just the two of ya,” Wally says firmly, and Henry is surprised. Usually the man was quick to ‘get outta there’ when it came to trouble. He’s proud of Wally’s maturity.

Norman’s light flicks up to the sign over their heads that reads **INK MACHINE**. They’re back to the start.

Back to when Henry believed this would be some sort of friendly visit. Maybe a surprise party with all his friends. He should have known that with Joey, it was never going to be what he expected it to be.

They all take a collective breath as they enter the room where the Ink Machine will be.

Henry takes a step and feels Bendy tug on his vest, his other gloved hand holding something tightly. He tilts his head and Bendy shuffles his feet gesturing for the toon to open his palm. Henry does so and there’s a soft jingle as a necklace is placed in his hand.

The necklace he thought he lost. On the band was three things, two rings and a locket. He takes in a deep breath and looks to Bendy who seems ashamed.

“Ya dropped this, when ya first came in. It’s broken and I tried to fix it but-but..”

Henry doesn’t say anything but swoops down and gives the smaller toon a tight hug. He can practically feel Bendy melt into his embrace still sniffling a bit. It seems he was really shaken up when Henry had fallen down the hole.

 _“_ Thank you _,”_ Henry whispers, his voice raw and filled with emotion. On that necklace was his and his wife’s wedding rings. After she passed away he was so worried about losing them that he placed them on a necklace. The locket held a picture of his wife, Linda, the real Linda, and him smiling widely. Happy. Something he hasn’t felt in a long time.

“Who’s dat in da picture?” Bendy asks quietly as Henry opens the locket to see his wife. His _wife_. Not some messed up copy, or some fake. His beautiful wife with the auburn curls and green eyes. With the brightest smile known to mankind. She had a laugh that sounded like bells, he could hear it echoing in his mind.

Henry doesn’t know how to explain to Bendy who she is, Allison is a bit far ahead for him to have her translate.

“She someone special?” Bendy inquires as he peers into the locket Henry is holding tightly. Henry nods at that doing his best to keep himself from shedding tears. “I’m...sorry I chased ya. It was..”

Henry shakes his head quietly, the chain of the necklace was broken so he placed the jewelry into his vest pocket patting it so it stayed secure. He gently rubs the middle of Bendy’s horns and the little devil leans into it, closing his eyes.

After this, he’s going to take Bendy home. To his real home. Where he isn’t bossed around by Joey, but free to enjoy his newfound life. Henry will show him everything.

Bendy takes his hand and they both walk into the room where the machine is held after Allison called for them.

However, it’s much different to when Henry first entered the studio. Instead of this large machine being held up by chains, it looks like a large lair, a castle in a sea of ink.

Two bright torches light the room up, and Henry sees the steam escaping the machine. Ink flows out of the many pipes and valves spilling into what was the chasm that carried the Ink Machine.

“This…” Allison hesitates. “This is different.”

“The final bow. Joey always was one for theatrics,” Norman whispers as he looks to Henry who nods.

Sammy leans over the edge and an inky bead of sweat falls off his face. “How the heck are we going to get over there? None of us can swim in that ink.”

“It might takes us.” Alice whispers and Henry tilts his head. He could swim through the ink just fine, he had done it before...but it seemed for the ones like Alice it would be more difficult.

There’s a gurgling noise and Sammy yelps, jerking back as a inky hand swipes at him. A large searcher pulls itself out of the inky moat, soon there’s many following suit.

They moan loudly and all of the crew huddled close with their weapons out. Henry grips his halo as Bendy attaches himself to his back gripping his vest tightly.

“Get ready!” Allison shouts as she twirls her machete. Alice cocks her tommy gun and fires the first bullet with a large snarl.

A battle breaks out, toons versus the ink abominations. Too much ink, not enough human. Henry swings his halo and tosses it much like a discus and the metal band glows brightly, slicing through a searcher like it was paper. It flies back to him and Henry catches it easily.

He keeps close to Sammy and Norman. The projectionist has found a board and is proceeding to slam it down on the searchers while Sammy dodges to the best of his abilities.

“Yer a toon! Use that to your advantage!” Bendy shouts and Sammy shoots him a look.

“I am not a toon!” he shouts back. Henry sighs, tossing his halo to get the searcher about to swipe at Sammy. “What would I even do?!” he asks, jumping back once a searcher got too close to comfort.

“I dunno! What are you good at? You make those songs right?! Think about that! Henry’s good at art so he can create things!” Bendy says as Henry draws the scythe onto the ground once more and the thing rises out of the ink and into his hand.

Henry twirls it swiftly, swiping the heads of the searchers. They keep coming but Henry is determined. This will not stop him from getting Joey and beating him a good amount.

Sammy isn’t sure what the heck Bendy is talking but takes a deep breath. Music; that’s something he could do. Maybe a little symphony to play for these creatures. Anyone can enjoy music right?

Sammy feels something form in his hand and he opens his eyes to find a baton in his hand. Something he was familiar with. He gives a wild grin as he looks to Henry, who saw it happen, and gives a thumbs up to the Devil toon.

“Let’s play you a little melody shall we?” Sammy says as he lifts his hands and out of the ink music notes appear with their own little tune.

With a swift flick of his wrist a melody plays and sound waves vibrate off the inky notes. There’s a gurgling noise as the ink creatures pause to hear the sweet melody. Only for the notes to turn sour and they scream in agony. With a loud sickly pop the searchers burst from the loud noise into large puddles.

“Haha! Take that fiends!” Sammy shouts in triumph his pointed tail wagging much like a metronome.

“That’s the spirit! They ain’t got nothin’ on us!” Bendy shouts, still hanging off of Henry’s back as the angel toon swipes at the searchers with his scythe.

Norman watches as Sammy continued to call forth music notes and blast away enemies with his melodies. “Hmm..” The projectionist wacks one of the searchers on the head only for the board to break in half, making the searcher growl loudly.

He notices a line of searchers crawling closer to him and takes a step back. He lets out a blood curdling screech, his eye burning bright as a large beam of light fires from it. With a loud cry the searchers melt away as if the beam was hotter than hell itself, leaving nothing but puddles of steaming ink.

“Nice!” Wally shouts seeing that the searcher numbers were dwindling down, but there was still a swarm of the searchers and now the Lost Ones were starting to pull themselves out of the ink as well. He takes a step back only to bump into Tom, who holds an axe in his hand. Tom glances at him and gives a toothy grin as the searchers begin to circle around him.

“Ya thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Tom shouts and Wally gives a firm nod.

“@#$& yeah I am!” With that, Tom links arms with the other Boris and lifts him up, letting Wally stomp on the searchers as Tom twirls him around.

With shuddery groans, the searchers melt into puddles as Wally kicks them. Once they all fall, Wally jumps away with a large grin bumping his gloved fist against Tom’s metal one.

“Now that’s what I call teamwork!” Wally chirps and Tom nods in agreement giving his own smile. “It’s good to be back.”

“Agreed. Now if we can get back to what we used to be like...that would be better,” Tom says before he rushes off to help Allison.

The ink grows quiet after a good moment of battling and smashing the searchers and lost ones back into the liquid.

Henry settles down and the scythe melts away as he flicks the small amount of ink off his fingertips. The machine gives a loud rumble, the gears clanking loud as steam escapes the pipes.

“Haha! Thought your little minions could take us down, did ya?” Sammy shouts to the machine and the machine answers back with a loud roar. Sammy yelps and hides behind Norman and Alice while Henry steps forward.

_Let’s end this, Joey. No more._

Almost as if Joey himself read the toon’s mind, the machine groans loudly, ink pumping out of the two pipes in the front.

This time no enemies appear, but the ink begins to harden and rise, making a path to the Ink Machine. It goes quiet, leaving just the steady thrum of machinery and a beckoning nature.

“He’s ready for us,” Alice states as they stare at the blackened road before them.

Into the Lion’s Den they go.

Henry breathes sharply placing his feet down on the hardened ink. It doesn’t budge under his weight but he doubts he weighs anything too significant. Bendy was next still gripping his hand like a lifeline, determined to not let the taller toon out of his sight.

It was very endearing to say the least.

The others soon follow Henry as they travel across the road to the Ink Machine. The mighty machine looms over them like a massive castle, foreboding and dark. The belly of the beast.

Joey was always one for theatrics.

They enter the entrance and the opening slams shut with a loud clang.

“No turning back now,” Tom says and Wally nods.

“Can’t chicken out now Sammy boy,” Wally teases only to get hit in the ribs by Allison. The Boris toon gives a yelp before chuckling and rubbing his sore side.

“I’ll have you know that I do not plan to run away. I would like to give some words to our _dear_ boss,” Sammy growls, his tail whipping around in his irritation.

“First, we turn the machine off. It’ll cut off Joey’s supply of ink, but we won’t be able to reform. Once it’s off...be careful,” Allison informs them and there’s audible gulp for some of the toons.

There is no turning back. Face forward and press on.

Keep moving.

Henry takes in a deep breath and steps into the entrance of the machine. The large entranceway leads to a hall filled with loud creaking gears and pipes that dripped with ink breaking through the cracks. This place is bursting at the seams, literally, just about to overfill with ink.

Just how corrupt is Joey, to try and take the studio down into the inky abyss that he created?

There’s a banging noise from beside him and Henry jumps back, looking up to see a lost one trapped in a glass casing as ink pours over its head. Its lanky body is hunched and it has a hand pressed against the glass, creating a inky handprint. Above the figure is a sentence that chills Henry to the bone.

_I still remember my name._

Henry pulls his halo from its spot above his head, and lifted the metal band to the lost one.

The writing is different this time, thought still written in the golden scrawl.

_Help them..._

These people...all these people trapped here. For who knows how long. Days? Weeks? _Years?_

It’s hard to even imagine how long it’s been. He doesn’t know how long he’s been here either. Time doesn’t really apply here; there is no hint of sunlight, no indication of night and day.

Not like he has anyone that would worry for him if he’s been gone so long.

Henry halts that thought immediately. Sure, his home is empty, but he needs to get out of here, and take everyone else trapped here with him.

They finally step into what seems to be the core of the room, the large circular room that led up to the steps of what seemed to be a chair. On it sat Joey in all his glory.

Ink pools all around him, projections flickering as they show each episode of their beloved Bendy show.

Joey doesn’t move as his eyes catch Henry’s, but a slow grin crawls onto his face. “So you finally decided to drop by. And you’ve brought friends! You always were the type,” he says, looking at his fingernails, and Henry gives a low growl in warning.

Joey doesn’t say anything, his eyes glazing over to the many projections playing on the walls. “This was our legacy. The way to the top, to create an empire like no other. But you had to leave, you had to go and play house with your wife!” Joey snarls as everyone edges closer to Henry.

“You had to go, to leave me and this broken kingdom. And I of course picked up the pieces! Caring and nourishing this company, like it was my own child,” he continues as he leans on the chair like a madman, his once slicked-back hair now starting to fall over his face. The dim light shows just how gaunt Joey is, the darker shadows ringing around his eyes. Joey always was a thin and lanky man, but this…he had driven himself past the point of no return.

This Joey is not the Joey he knew, and Henry doesn’t  know if he can ever get his old friend back.

“But like all great empires, it began to crumble bit by bit. I wasn’t going to let that happen, I wasn’t going to run away! They want something new?! I’ll show them something new!” he snarls and Henry steps forward hiding Bendy behind him.

“And dragged us all down to hell with you,” Tom says firmly. Joey looked at him with a madness in his eyes, the dark inky tendrils curling around his face trashed as if alive.

“Ah yes Tomas Connor, the rough around the edges mechanic that did not back away when I asked for his help with the machine. No…I believe you were right alongside me. You and Franks both. In fact! You all were! Each and every one of you wanted a little piece of the action! You wanted fame! Glory! A story like no other!”

Tom says nothing, and neither do the others. Some look away in shame, the others in frustration. “Exactly. You can’t be putting the blame all on me, dear friends! We did this _together._ ”

“I didn’t want this to go so far!” Alice whispers and Joey laughs, the sound like nails on a chalkboard.

“Did you? I do recall you saying you _were_ Alice Angel. You got your wish, didn’t you? Not my fault you were corrupt. The ink only shows what you are on the inside, my dear. Warped, much like your blackened heart, dear Susie,” Joey states firmly. “And you decided to ruin my plans by changing _him,_ and now this place is destroying itself from the inside out.”

“All we had to do was bring him back, to take him out of the picture! Was that too hard?” Joey demands, burning holes into Henry’s own eyes with his stare. “But no, of course not. You rally together like some faulty rebellion. Trying to take down the menace, the tyrant sitting upon its lowly throne.”

“Why Henry? We all made Bendy! This wasn’t just you and him! We all worked hard on this!” Sammy snarls and Joey glares at him.

He breathes in sharply. “True, but the heart of studio was Henry. He was the lifeblood of this studio. Not me, not you. I learned that he was the one that could bring the true toons to life. Look at you, brought from the ink like a newborn babe.”

“Enough talking! This suffering ends _now_ ,” Allison says. She unsheathes her machete as she launches herself up onto the throne. Tom gives a small gasp as Joey doesn’t even bother to react as he snaps his finger and Allison’s form breaks away with a loud pop. Ink falls to the floor in a waterfall and a halo clinks onto the ground spinning until it stops dead at Joey’s feet.

“ALLISON!” Tom screams at the sight of the Angel just...disappearing in the blink of an eye. He rushes towards the fallen halo picking it up with shaking hands. “No. No no no no! You @#&$!” Tom snarls as he holds the halo tightly in his hand his face scrunched in pure rage.

“What did you do to her?!” Sammy whispers as Henry stares in complete disbelief watching the Boris hold the halo tightly at his chest.

“Please, did you really _think_ you could defeat me? You do realize what you all are made of, right? _Ink._ The lifeblood of this studio. Which I control.” He flexes his fingers as droplets of ink, ink that was once Allison orbits around his fingertips much like the planets around the sun.

“You killed her. _You killed her!_ ” Tom screams in pure agony and rage standing up and Joey just raises a brow.

“Oh go chew on a bone,” Joey mutters, flicking his wrist and Tom is picked up like a doll and tossed into a room that opens and swallows him whole. The machine is alive, breathing in sync with Joey.

There’s no chance, they can’t … no..

“This isn’t right, Drew! You should know deep deep down that what you’re doin’ is wrong!” Norman shouts, standing up to the deranged man.

Joey doesn’t say anything, leaning back against the chair, his hand resting on his chin. “Yes, I suppose I am, but I couldn’t care now. I’m close. So close to achieving my goal. And I won’t hesitate to end anyone that gets in my way.”

With that, Norman gives out a loud screech as his body begins to melt. With a loud metal clang, the projector that was once his head falls to the floor, the light no longer gleaming.

“Norman!”

 _“Joey stop this! Please!”_ Henry practically begs. Bendy clings onto him watching his friends fall victim to Joey once again. And like before, Henry can’t do anything about it.

Alice gives a low growl and fires her gun, only to have the bullets melt away and the gun drip through her fingers once more. With a snap of Joey’s fingers,  Alice screams and Henry watches as a small Alice toy is in her place falling to the floor. Henry gives a whimpering noise as he tries to get Joey to stop.

“Joey please, this ain’t you! We all want this to stop, please… Can’t you see we all want this to be over with? Henry...he came back, he didn’t betray you. Please.” Wally whispers, trying to appease to the man, but Joey stands and with a single sweep of his hand Sammy and Wally get swept away into yet another room leaving Henry and Bendy alone.

“Joey...you’re scaring me,” Bendy whimpers. Joey raises a brow finally standing from his throne and stepping down to the floor. Henry takes an instinctive step back, gently tugging Bendy along with him, his chest heaving heavily.

Joey continues to stare as the ink begins to pool around them, dribbling out of the cracks and onto the floor. “I scare you? I _scare_ you?!” Joey screams. “You are _my_ creation! I created you out of my own DNA! And yet you cling to the traitor, the one that left us all to rot.”

“He didn’t leave us! You just said that to make me mad at him!” Bendy shouts breaking away from Henry despite the angel giving pleading noises. _No no don’t go near him! Don’t you touch him Joey!_

“Who was there when you first woke from your inky womb?! Who was there to teach you your first steps?! The world?! Who?! Not him! But me!” Joey shouts, his face was curled in a snarl, eyes swirling in madness.

Bendy gives a small whimper but stands his ground, “But why did ya say all those things?! Why? Why do all this?! Yer hurting people! Ya promised to bring them here but not like this!”

“I couldn’t create another! None were perfect, they needed a spark! Your brethren are here, just not in this plane of existence! But enough! I will not argue with a child who does not know his place!” Joey bends down and grabs Bendy by his arm, lifting him up. Joey towers over Henry, the man always had been tall, but to a toon he was Goliath.

Henry makes a noise as he reaches for Bendy, but Joey lifts him higher, the Devil squirming and crying out in fear. “Lemme go! Lemme go!” he screams as Henry flings his halo, hitting Joey in the kneecap.

It doesn’t seem to hurt him, but Joey glares down at Henry. Henry doesn’t take a step back this time. He’s unable to say anything but he hopes that Joey understands how wrong he is. How this needed to end.

“Oh, don’t give me that look. Once again, you are the poor hero that everyone loves, and I play the villain. If you want a villain, then **_I’ll give you a villain_ ** **.** ”

Without hesitation, Joey digs his hand into Bendy’s chest. The toon screams in pain, writhing to escape his grasp. Henry moves to stop him, this time ready to attack, but large inky chains clamp down onto his wrist. He’s dragged to the floor as the ink covers it completely. He stands there helplessly, trapped as Bendy’s form shifts, ink spreading around Joey as they merge into one. Ink spills above their head, an inky waterfall absorbing into the figure that grows and stretches.

A sharp blade-like tail whips out, looking much like a thin scorpion’s tail. Four appendages break away from the ink, spider-like in quality but thicker, stronger. Henry hears a distorted laugh as a face pulls through the ink, the familiar ink demon face, but slimmer, with rows upon rows of sharp teeth breaking through.

“ **_How do you like this?! Is this villain enough for you, Henry?!”_ ** The creature shouts, the voice a mixture of Joey’s and Bendy’s. Large inky claws rip through the throne, the heavy thing easily breaking into two pieces and crashing onto the sides of the circular room. Then the creature turns its sights on him.

It hisses and slams its large hand against Henry, sending him flying. The chains easily break and he tears through the metal wall as if it was nothing, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.

He can feel his body screaming in agony, and can’t do anything but slide onto the floor as the creature crawls through the hole.

“ **_This is the end game, Henry. The curtain falls and you won’t be leaving this studio. I will be immortal, and create a army of toons to destroy every person that doubted my work,”_ ** the creature hisses. Henry winces trying to get up, suddenly feeling drained and exhausted. What has Joey done?

He needs to get out of here! But how?

The Ink Monster is crawling closer, faster than Henry expected him to be. His halo is on the floor and Henry snatches it, seeing hidden writing on the floor as he does.

_Quick! The Levers!_

Levers? He looks at the golden arrows, pointing to a lever sticking out of the columns of machinery. The gears are hissing and groaning louder than ever, nearly drowning out the snarls and hisses from the Ink Monster.

He scrambles to get up, pushing himself over to the first lever, hoping that it will open a door, any door. He can draw one, but Joey can just as easily divert it back to him. Joey controls the ink, after all.

He doesn’t get to the lever in time. The Ink Monster swipes its large claw and hits Henry in the back, causing him to tumble and fall. Ink spills from his side and he grips his injury, still limping towards the lever.

“ **_Decided to give up, eh, old friend? Is it time for the mighty hero to say goodbye? I’m sure you’d like to join your dead wife! I enjoyed making her, to see your face as she pulled apart into a monster...it was truly invigorating!”_ ** Joey taunts but Henry doesn’t listen.

In fact, it creates a burning fire in his belly. He isn’t going to die here. This isn’t going to be his final resting place. No, he is going to get out of here. Linda...help him, give him the strength to finish this.

He gets to the first lever, ignoring the large droplets of ink hitting the floor. He needs to focus. _Focus, Henry!_

The sound of scraping metal echoes through the maze of machinery, but there is no time to waste, not with the Ink Monster searching for him. Henry pulls his halo from his head and looks for another arrow.

**_“If you would have just followed the script and died like a good little protagonist, we wouldn’t have to do this, dear friend!”_ **

Henry wants to scream, he wants to shout that Joey _is not_ his friend. Not anymore. Not after this. What Joey did here is unforgivable.

Sliding around the corner, he holds the halo up so he can see the messages scrawled around the place. Oddly enough, he was beginning to notice the handwriting for the messages differed. Some are written in neat scrawl, others in full caps.

A perfect time to notice a change in these odd messages is as he’s being chased by his former best friend that is now a demonic spider monster.

_This way! Have faith!_

Faith? Faith is something he doesn’t exactly have right now. But he supposes this is the time to start.

He clings onto his halo as he skids to the lever and pulls it down. There’s a whirring noise and Henry lifts his head to see the large creature lean over the wall, claws sinking into the metal. The machinery bent like it was nothing, and the monster smiled, a large toothy grin growing under the inky curtain that covered most of his face.

 

“ **_There you are. Thought you could get away did you?”_ **

Henry growls a warning at the monster. Bendy is in there. Joey is keeping him hostage. Using him, like he used everyone else in this studio.

 **_“I think it’s time you settled into your role, dear friend. You’re not getting out of here alive.”_ ** The creature’s voice is mostly Joey’s, with just a tinge of Bendy’s. Henry holds his halo out, taking a step back as he closes his eyes. He wills the glowing band to brighten enough that it nearly engulfs the entire room.

The Demon hisses loudly, putting his claws up to protect his face, and that’s Henry’s cue to slide under the large appendages and follow the next arrow.

Ink is still dripping off him; the swipe to his side isn’t looking too good. Things don’t look promising, but he isn’t about to die here.

Henry hears the loud clicking of the Demon’s spider-like appendages and its deep chuckling. “ **_Clever little Angel. But there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide! I’ve got you now!_ ** ” With a mighty screech the monster leaps. Henry turns around to face him a large blob of his ink on his fingertips. With a simple swipe of his hand, ink splatters onto the floor, and from it an inky sepia-colored wall springs up, causing the monster to crash right into it.

Henry doesn’t waste any time running to the next corridor. This room is like a labyrinth and the Ink Monster its Minotaur. Bendy, god, _Bendy!_ What is Joey doing to him? There’s the sound of ink splattering and Henry turns his head to see the creature ripping through the wall like butter.

**_“Did you think that would help you? Your feeble powers? Please!”_ **

But it stopped him, didn’t it? Henry holds the final lever in his arms and tugs it down. He looks over his shoulder to see a large door crank open and his wings pick up with a sudden burst of energy.

With a quick flap, he’s able to glide underneath the small opening of the doors as the creature swipes at him. It hits his liquid wings, and with a pop one of them splatters onto the floor. He falls with a heavy thud, rolling into the center of the room.

He coughs up ink, his intact wing feebly trying to push him up. Ink hits the floor as his toon body struggles to keep itself together. _Damn it! Keep going, press on._

There’s the sound of laughter and Henry pushes himself up, looking at the door that’s being forcefully opened by the creature, by Joey. “ **_What’s wrong dear friend? Feeling a little WASHED up?”_ **

Henry gives a small groan as Joey’s tail nearly slams into him, barely managing to dodge it. He feels unbalanced now with one wing, the remaining ink appendage flapping aimlessly.

“ **_The Great Henry Stein! Look at him in all his glory. Withering away like a spilled inkwell. Toon bodies are resilient little things, but they wear away after time.”_ **

Henry dodged the swings and slams of the large creature’s body as Joey taunted him. He can feel his energy draining away, his halo just barely keeping up above his head.

“ **_It’s time you ended your story,”_ ** Joey snarls as he slams his scorpion-like tail into Henry’s torso, pinning him into the ground. Henry cries out in pain, gripping the tail feebly. His body shakes as he feels the tail dig deeper into him.

 **_“Once I am done with you, I’ll start over. Wipe away the slate, like repainting over a old portrait,”_ ** Joey states, leaning forward until his face is inches from Henry’s. “ **_Don’t worry; it’ll be painless. I just need...this.”_ **

Joey reaches out his clawed hand at Henry’s left side, the longest claw tapping at the position where his heart should be. “ **_After all...you are the heart of this studio. Always were.”_ **

Henry closes his eyes, waiting for death, waiting for Joey to rip his heart out and take control of whatever power Henry had. But it doesn’t come, and Henry opens an eye to see Joey just about frozen, his clawed hand shaking. The ink around the demon’s face spills faster than usual. He can see a pie cut eye peeking through the ink, and there’s a soft noise.

“You leave my Dad ALONE.”

With that, the creature stumbles back, tail pulled from Henry’s body. With a sudden vigor, Henry feels his form start to knit back together as the creature screeches loudly, gripping at his head.

“ **_What are you DOING?!”_ ** Joey screeches.

“No more! No more of this!”

It seems Bendy is taking control.

Henry stands up, still wounded but feeling a little better. He sees the large tubes of constantly-flowing ink and he gives a whistle, not caring about the consequences. He gestures to them and Bendy gets the picture.

The creature jerks, suddenly crashing its bony shoulder into one of the tubes, and it shatters. Ink bubbles and flows from the broken pipe, spilling onto the floor.

Henry takes in a deep breath, shaking off the pain, his one wing flapping with determination. He braces himself and pulls at the ink attached to his back. With a sharp clang the ink hardens, and in his right hand is a large shield. He holds it tightly and grips his halo. He understands what he needs to do.

 

_Get Bendy out of that body._

He flings his halo at the creature. It hisses as it hits his head, baring it’s large teeth.

_Come and get me, fucker._

It skitters towards him in like a bull seeing red. Henry races to the next glass pipe and waits, holding his shield up. The demon bursts across the room and Henry uses that as an opportunity to leap off the tubing. His shield morphs into a hang glider of sorts and the demon crashes into the ink with a large roar.

He lands perfectly, finding that thee more ink was spilled from the pipes, the stronger he felt.

**_“This...isn’t over—“_ **

“Keep at it Henry, I can’t—“

_Don’t worry Bendy, I’ll get you out of there._

Henry feels the Ink pull at him, and he uses it to his advantage, making a bubble-like shield to surround him as the demon swipes at him. The ink holds and the demon roars, continuing to swipe and claw at him.

Henry swipes his clenched fist and the bubble pops, but the ink splatters into sharp needles, hitting Joey, who stumbles and crashes into the third pipe.

The ink is close to his knees now; this room is going to overflow. He needs to break the last pipe and get Bendy out of here.

He breathes sharply as Joey hobbles up, limping on one of his legs. He no doubt didn’t expect Henry to fight back, or even Bendy for that matter.

 _Just one more pipe, Bendy._ With that much ink it will be hard for both of them to stay together. Especially since Henry is determined to pull them apart.

 **_“Clever, clever...you’re just realizing your true potential,”_ ** Joey snarls, and Henry gives a sneer of his own. He may not be able to speak, but that doesn’t mean he can’t give a nasty glare. **_“But like all heroes, it’ll be too late, old friend.”_ **

With a mighty sweep, Joey uses all his strength to slash at Henry, who smirks and ducks under the claw. With a crash, the claws swipe through the glass and ink pours out, filling up the room.

Henry does his best to keep his head above the ink, watching Joey scramble and roar. There’s an odd sound, and Henry feels a pull as the ink begins to drain. Swept away with the current, Henry plunges into darkness, hearing Joey and Bendy’s screams intermingling.

 

…

 

_Splat!_

Henry gulps in air as the ink spits him out into an unfamiliar room. The metal pipes and walls tell him he’s still in the ink machine. Coughing up ink, he feels his body burn from the adrenaline finally ebbing away. He lifts himself out of the ink pool he landed in, wiping away the stray ink droplets.

To his left he sees a familiar shape. With a grunt, he stands and rushes to the inky blob. He quickly grabs at the gloved hands and pulls the blob out of the ink.

With shaking hands he wipes away the excess ink, watching as curved horns poke through, then a white bow tie and a equally white face. Henry gently holds him close, hearing his labored breathing.

He’s okay. Bendy is okay.

 

Henry gives a small sob, happy to see that Bendy isn’t hurt. Who knows what Joey could have done to him by merging like he did. Henry holds his creation close to him, closing his eyes.

There’s a small pat to his back and Henry pulls away so fast to see Bendy’s smiling face at him. Perfect pie-cut eyes, and that wonderful smile. “Dad,” He says and Henry can’t help but give a wet laugh, pulling him closer as the toon grips him tightly.

“I-I..” Bendy whispers as he leans into Henry’s embrace holding him like he was about to melt away. “I love ya Dad. Ain’t nothin’ gonna hurt ya. Not while I’m around,” he says firmly and Henry gives a laugh standing up and holding Bendy close.

Now how the heck are they to get everyone else back? Joey.. Henry glances at the pool of ink, hoping that Joey is gone, finally free from whatever demons were haunting him.

He takes a deep breath and suddenly a entranceway appears before him. He blinks up at the thing and then looks to Bendy.

“You...control the ink machine?” the little devil asks, confused.

Did he?

_You are the heart of the studio. Always were._

Now that Joey is gone…is Henry able to reverse all that had been done? Henry quietly places Bendy on the floor and then furrows his brows. His friends, all of them that had succumbed to the ink...he wanted them to be okay. To be well.

As if the ink machine read his mind, an opening appears with a hefty groan, causing Tom to tumble and fall out of it. He’s still a Boris, but he seems okay. Henry watches as Allison’s halo falls to the floor by his feet, and he gently reaches for it as Tom moves to stand.

“Henry! You’re okay!” Tom says, relieved, and Henry gives a happy hum, looking up as Wally and Sammy fall to the floor. Wally is clutching Norman’s head and Sammy had the Alice doll that was no doubt Susie.

“Why do we keep falling?! I’m getting tired of this!” Sammy rants as he dusted himself off with a huff. Wally moves to swing him around and he sees Henry and practically lights up.

“Henry! Oh thank goodness.” Sammy says relieved. “And Bendy too! Where...where’s Drew.”

Bendy just points to the inky pool behind them and the musician gives them a ‘ah’.

“So ya bested him didn’t ya? Nice,” Wally says, his tail wagging in approval.

“What..what about Allison…” Tom whispers his ears low as he looks to Henry who holds her halo in his hands.

“Henry can fix it! Right, Dad?” Bendy asks as Henry looks down at the angelic item.

Could he? Henry doesn’t even know how to begin with this. Can he pull them away from the ink? Henry gently rubs away the grime from being tossed into the gunky ink and the halo suddenly shakes.

He drops it with a small yelp and it almost looks like Ink is pulling away from the halo and the golden light gets brighter and brighter. Henry puts a hand over his eyes as a figure begins to form.

Soon the light disappears in a flash and a woman is in its place. Her skin is no longer a sepia color, but flesh toned. No ink stains her arms, or her hair--auburn, tied up in a neat fishtail braid.

She takes in a deep breath and opens her eyes; they’re not bright yellow but a calm grey. She looks at her hands and touches her face and head, noticing that her slightly chipped horns were smaller and a pure white. Her halo no longer was placed as a headband, but floated above her head much like Henry’s did. But it’s Allison. At least, that’s what Henry assumes, since he never met the voice actress.

“Henry,” she breathes giving a thank you in sign and Henry just beams as she turns to Tom with the happiest smile on her lips.

“Oh, Tom!” she cries out in happiness, hugging the Boris, who hugs her back equally tight.

Henry clears his throat and the two pull away, Allison’s face extremely flushed. He isn’t sure how to do this, but he supposes if he concentrates and…

It’s a sight to see, watching all the ink spill off of everyone. Allison takes a step back to watch as the ink from the rest of the gang gathers. The ink immediately pulls away into the large vat of ink before them and figures begin to form.

Henry watches as the familiar faces of Sammy, Norman, Susie, Tom, and Wally appear, all gasping and cheering in delight.

“Wha! Why do I not have a shirt?!” Sammy shouts as he covers his bare chest, sporting just overalls. Wally barks out a laugh, holding his chest as Sammy sneers at him. “And horns?! Tail?!” Sammy still sported the ram-like horns poking out of his wheat blonde hair, that curl around his ears and the whipcord-like tail that thrashes about behind him.

“I mean, ya could still be a little toon,” Wally says. He touches his own fluffy ears, more pointed like an actual dog than the cartoon Boris.

“Oh, goodness!” Susie cries as she feels her chopped hair and her face, no longer practically melting. Her halo was no longer embedded into her scalp, but floated freely above her head.

“Don’t worry, you look beautiful,” Sammy says, getting Susie to blush and lightly push the musician.

“Wait, what about Henry? Can you change back?” Norman asks, pushing his glasses up his nose, the dark curls curling around his ears as he squints at everyone. His eyes were bright, the sclera a deep glowing yellow and his iris and pupils the brightest white Henry’s ever seen.

Henry looks down at himself with a small tilt of his head.

“ _I’m not sure. I think...in order for you to be back, I have to...be like this. Which is fine! I’m happy to see everyone okay,”_ Henry says quickly and Allison translates for him.

“But…” Sammy starts and Henry shakes his head as Bendy leans closer, and the angel gently pats his head.

“ _It’s fine. I’ll be okay.”_

They all give a look of concern but Henry waves it away. “ _Let’s just…get out of here.”_

“Thank you, Henry. You really were the hope we were all looking for,” Allison whispers. She holds Tom’s hand tightly, getting a soft peck from the mechanic. His ears are perked up, looking more akin to a Doberman’s ears than a wolf, and his other sleeve is dangling. His arm...it isn’t there.

Seems like Henry wasn’t able to bring back some things. Or some people, either. He can’t feel Lacie, or Grant, Jack, Shawn...Bertrum. Their souls are too far gone. Lost in the endless sea of ink.

He’s happy, though, to see everyone again. Happy to see their smiling faces. Familiar and friendly faces. He’s fine, with staying this way. Even though with Susie no longer being Alice, he assumed that he would turn back.

But he supposes this is the sacrifice he had to make to change the others all back.

Which isn’t a too bad thing.

Being with Bendy, it’s worth it. Though he wishes Boris and Alice were there with him, too. To keep the little devil company.

Henry pulls the halo from his head as everyone chatters happily, thankful to be back to themselves, ready to leave. He looks down at the golden writing at his feet.

_Make a wish and it will surely come true_

There’s a soft sigh and he feels something pull from his chest. He saw his halo begin to drip, golden ink forming into two separate piles. He steps back, careful of the ink behind him, and Bendy gives a small gasp as familiar forms appear.

Boris, and Alice! The real toons, perfectly on-model.

“Henry!” Alice chirps as she grabs his hand with Boris coming right behind her his tail wagging. “You read the messages we gave you! See, I knew he would!” She giggles as she places Henry’s halo back above his head. Bendy just about jumps into Boris’ arms.

“Boris! Alice! Yer here!” he says. Alice puts her hands on her hips, her lips pursed.

“Yes we are! And you, mister, have been awfully naughty! Hurting Papa Henry like that.”

Bendy leans into Boris, looking a bit guilty. “I said I was sorry,” he says and Alice huffs, shaking his head. Boris gives a whine of his own and Alice nods.

“That is true, but we are all here. Together,” she says and Henry nods feeling his eyes get a bit misty.

“Let’s go home, Dad,” Bendy says as Boris and Alice take his hands.

“Yes, let’s get out of here before the place collapses onto us,” Sammy mutters, and they all murmur their own agreements.

They all begin to walk out of the room, but just as they take their first steps, the room begins to rumble. Henry whips around to see the inky pool that covers half of the room shudder. A large hand slams on the floor and a figure rises from the ink. Henry feels his heart fall as the ink starts to drape over the figure. Many faces appear in the ink, tortured souls crying and screaming.

“ **_I don’t think so.”_ **

_Joey._

Henry swallows loudly as they all take a step back. Before them is what looks like a large searcher that had been attached to the Ink Demon. Joey’s face is covered with ink, bright yellow eyes glaring at Henry as inky horns pulled back from his hair, a terrifying grin on his face.

The room suddenly shifts and grows larger to fit Joey’s large size. He looks as if he’s sitting upon a throne of lost souls, his inked body the king of them all.

That’s exactly what Joey is. King of the Lost Souls.

“ **_You really think you could defeat me? Me! Joey Drew! I created all of you! I made you what you are today!”_ **

“Enough, Joey! Look at what you’ve become!” Allison says as Henry stands in front of them, pushing the toons away.

“ _All this torture, all this agony. Enough is enough, Joey!”_ Henry signs and Allison tells Joey, who screeches loudly, slamming a large fist with two identical holes in the middle of his hand. The machine walls groan from the impact, metal bending as he tries to move closer. Henry watches the searchers and lost ones trapped in Joey’s amalgamation of a body. It hurts to see them all suffering.

“ **_Torture?! Agony?! Like when you left us all to rot?!”_ **

“ _I had to! I was_ **_drafted,_ ** _I wanted to come back! Didn’t you see I wrote to you? When nothing came back I knew that I wasn’t welcome! And I know I should have come back, but I…I was destroyed after the war. A shell of a man. And I didn’t want anyone seeing that.”_

Henry swallows, “ _I let my pride get the best of me. Thirty years…it shouldn’t have been that long.”_

 **_“Your words mean nothing to me! You traitor! You LIAR._ ** ” He’s hysterical now and makes a motion to slam his large fist at Henry, who winces waiting for the impact.

But nothing happens.

Instead, the searchers and lost ones attached to him start to move, grabbing at Joey and pulling him down. The ink breaks away and Joey is back to his human form, trying to push away the crawling figures. “What?! No! Let me go! I am your CREATOR! NO!” He screams as he is slowly dragged into the ink. His nails scrape against the metal trying to pull away from the groaning and crying lost souls of the studio.

“Noooo!!!” he screeches, and then there’s a wild look in his eyes, “If I’m going then you’re COMING WITH ME!” Joey shouts. With a final effort, an inky chain comes from Joey’s hand and grabs at Henry’s leg, clutching it tightly and yanking him down onto the floor.

“HENRY!” the toons shout, racing to their creator, but it’s too late. They race to try and grab Henry as Joey pulls him into the ink, laughing like a maniac. There’s panicked silence, as everyone is at a standstill for what had just transpired.

That silence doesn’t last long and the machine rumbles. Then steam escapes and Tom looks to Wally with wide eyes, his ears perking up to the sound. Wally’s own ears mimic it, and he looks around with even wider eyes.

“It’s gonna overfill! We gotta get outta here!” Wally shouts. Ink begins to break through the cracks of the wall, the machine going into overdrive.

“But Henry!” Bendy shouts. Allison scoops up the little demon and angel. She isn’t about to leave the last creations of Henry Stein in danger.

“We need to get out of here, or we will all die!” Allison says, trying her best to hide away her tears. Henry..oh god, Henry.

He’s gone. They can’t go back into the ink to get him, they’re human now. Well, mostly. Who knows what will happen if they tried? No one wants to go back to the way they were, especially if Henry isn’t there to help them.

They can’t do anything about it.

Bendy squirms in her grasp, and Alice is sobbing into her blouse. Boris whines heavily behind them. “LET ME GO! LET ME GO!! I CAN SAVE HIM! NO, HENRY!” Bendy screams as he looks back at the pool, but the ink is continually filling up the room and the machine itself.

He can’t let his dad just sit in that ink! He just got him back. But Allison’s grip is too strong, and he’s unable to get out and help his creator back out of the ink. Inky tears spill down his cheeks. He presses his face into Allison’s collarbone, unable to watch what’s happening.

“We need to leave _now_ ,” Tom says as they rush down the corridor, not daring to look back, all with solemn faces.

Henry sacrificed himself, to save them all. Only for Joey to do that… They won’t die here, for Henry’s sake. For his death to not be in vain.

They’re able to escape the ink overfilling the large device, and as they step into the clearing the machine is oddly quiet. The inky bridge is no longer, melting away with the rest of the ink. Finally the ink machine shut down, no longer pumping ink. It just continues to overflow with the black liquid, spilling out of every crack in the machine.

“Henry..” Susie whimpers, her head buried in Sammy’s chest as the man holds her tight. She cried softly as the musician attempts to soothe her woes with an equally sad look on his face. Norman has a hand on Sammy’s shoulder, his eyes obscured by the dark curls that frame his face, his teeth clenched in anger for letting Henry meet the fate that he did. Tom holds Allison quietly, his ears flat, as the toons mourn for their creator.

 

…

 

_Henry…_

_Henry, dear, get up._

_Silly man, sleeping at a time like this_.

Henry blinks his eyes open to find his wife looking down at him, her green eyes bright and honey-brown hair curling around her face. “Good afternoon, did you have a nice nap?”

He shoots up, staring at Linda. She giggles softly, her eyes scrunched in mirth. “Linda? Linda?! Is that..is that you?!” he asks, putting his hands over her face. He notices he can speak, properly, no burning pain. Nothing.

They’re on a hill near a field of sunflowers, the bright yellow flowers swaying in the gentle breeze. There’s a swing on the large branch of the oak tree they were under, sunlight poking through the many leaves bringing a sense of _peace_ and _tranquility._

“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be?” she asks, threading her fingers into his hair. He nearly whimpers at the touch, missing the feeling of her. It had been so long...

Henry leans into her warm hand, feeling his eyes get watery as he holds her hand with a vice grip, as if she’ll turn into dust in his hands if he lets go. “I missed you...so much.”

Her smile is bittersweet, as she tilts her head. “I know. You’ve been through so much. My brave pilot.” She leans her forehead against his and he can smell her sweet perfume. This isn’t a dream...she’s here.

His Linda.

“But...it’s not your time,” she says with a hum, and he blinks, looking at her. “Oh sweetheart, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not your time.”

“My...time? No, Linda, I want to be here! With you. I-I can’t do this on my own. I’ve been such a mess, I—“

Linda gives a small laugh which sounds like bells to his ears. “Henry Stein, you’ve done so much, and you better not leave those toons without a father. Like I said, it’s not your time.”

“Linda—“

She puts her finger on his mouth with a gentle smile. “Henry, don’t worry….I’ll be here. I’m not planning on moving anytime soon.”

Henry swallows, and he leans in, kissing her, gently curling his fingers through her soft hair, memorizing her scent and her touch. It’s been so long, but she’s right.

He needs to go back to Bendy, Alice, and Boris. And the others too.

They need him.

“Go, Henry, my love. Enjoy what you have. I’ll always be with you. I’m here.” She gently touches his heart, and Henry feels wet tears drip down his face as she gently kisses his forehead.

Then, with a simple tap, he feels like he’s falling. It’s a gentle fall from golden lights to inky blackness.

“I love you,” he says to her as he falls and her face gets further and further away.

“I love you more,” she says, and everything goes black.

 

…

“What are we going to do now? We don’t have a house or..” Sammy asks as he rubs his arm, Susie still crying in his shoulder.

“We press on. It’s what Henry would want us to—“

“LOOK, DA INK!” Bendy shouts. He points to bubbles in the surface of the ink, and from them, a pale hand shoots up, and then a face gasping for breath.

Tom immediately jumps into the moat, grabbing at the ink-covered person, and lifts him up onto the solid floor.

The figure is coughing as the ink drips off of him, revealing a small, thin man with greying hair. He has a linear scar across his lip and bright blue eyes that blink rapidly from the sudden light.

“Henry!” Bendy shouts. He races towards the coughing man, who wipes away the ink from his face. Human, completely and utterly.

Everyone gives a happy cheer, racing towards the man. With large smiles they all embrace him. He’s laughing loudly, despite the ache of his throat, tears in his eyes as he holds the toons tightly in his arms.

After a moment of pure relief and bliss they all pull away and Allison helps Henry up. He’s wincing a bit from all the aches and pains, no doubt transferred from when he was a toon, but he’s happy. He sports two white horns much like Allison and Susie, with a brightly glowing halo that pulses in his happiness.

“Let’s get outta here, eh?” Wally asks and Henry gives a smile, nodding.

But that smile breaks at the sound of loud groan. Henry turns around to see smoke escaping the machine as it begins to start again. There’s groaning and gears begin to fly out, crashing into the wall, causing bits of rock and floorboard to break away and fall into the still ink.

Fire then bursts from the cracks and soon the room is beginning to go aflame. There’s an explosion, and the ink begins to catch on fire. Smoke fills the air as the team take a step back, avoiding the debris continuing to fall.

They cover their mouths and rush to the exit. Wooden beams crash down and pipes burst, ink flowing out of every crevice, and the fire continues to crawl throughout the studio.

“Watch out!” Allison shouts as a picture frame of the Bendy show falls down, catching fire. She pulls Susie out of the way and moves them towards the exit of the studio.

Henry finds the door is unlocked, the large hole that he fell into no longer there, and pushes the worn door open with a hefty grunt.

Escape is easier than they expected. They rush out towards the empty parking lot. It’s nighttime, and the stars twinkle overhead. They all stand before the mighty Joey Drew Studios, watching the flames grow and consume the large building.

Ink is pretty flammable after all. It was a fire hazard waiting to happen.

Henry watches the fire burning bright as the wood begins to crack and fall into itself. He feels a gentle hand take his and sees Bendy holding him tightly, his cheek rested on his leg. Alice is on other side him of and she’s holding his other hand, with Boris holding hers.

All those memories, the good ones...Henry would cherish them. As the fire consumes and rips apart what he once called home, Henry can’t help his mind wandering to Joey. He hopes that Joey found his peace, that the tainted ink is no longer tethering him to do such evil things.

With a bittersweet smile he opens his chapped lips, knowing his throat is just about to kill him for all the talking he’s been doing.

But he just has to say...one final thing.

As the letters of the Joey Drew Studios sign begin to crack and burn from the fire, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Goodbye, old friend.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnd scene! Thank you all once again for reading and dont forget to check in on the names mentioned in the first Author Notes! They make such amazing content and deserve all the love! 
> 
> It's been a wonderful time, and there will be an epilogue in the future so be on the lookout for that! 
> 
> Until next time, peace out!

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this au a while ago and finally got the chance to actually sit down and write this up! I absolutely love this idea and can’t wait to dive in further, I have a lot planned for this. 
> 
> If you want to see any of my drawings from Tumblr look me up! I answer all sorts of questions there and draw a few responses, so don’t be afraid to ask some questions of your own! 
> 
> My tumblr: https://inkspottie.tumblr.com/


End file.
